REUBEN  T.   DURRETT,  A.B.,  LL.B.,  A.M.,  LL.D. 


President  of  The   Kilbon  Cluh 


FILSON    CLUB    PUBLICATIONS    No.   23 


TRADITIONS 


OF  THE 


Earliest  Visits  of  Foreigners 


TO 


NORTH  AMERICA 

The  First  Formed  and  First  Inhabited  of   the 

Continents 

BY 

REUBEN  T.  DURRETT 

A.  B.,  LL.  B.,  A.M.,  LL.  D. 
President  of  The  Filson  Club 


UUitatratri 


LOUISVILLE,  KENTUCKY 
JOHN   P.  MORTON   &   COMPANY 

(Incorporated) 

PRINTERS  TO  THE  FILSON  CLUB 
1908 


Or    THE 

':nsiry 

,vub# 


COPYRIGHT,  1908, 


THE  FILSON  CLUB 


All  Rights  Reserved 


INTRODUCTION 

AT  the  beginning  of  our  Civil  War  there  lived  in 
Louisville  an  elderly  gentleman  by  the  name  of 
Griffin,  who,  though  belonging  to  neither  of  the 
learned  professions,  had  read  many  books  and  stored 
his  excellent  memory  with  much  useful  information.  He 
was  of  Welsh  descent,  and  proud  of  the  long  line  of  Cam 
brians  he  numbered  among  his  ancestors.  I  knew  him 
well,  and  was  fond  of  talking  with  him  about  the  many 
interesting  things  that  occurred  while  Louisville  was  pro 
gressing  from  a  straggling  row  of  log  cabins  and  ponds 
along  unpaved  Main  Street,  between  First  and  Twelfth, 
to  the  mansions  of  brick  and  stone  along  the  many  paved 
streets  now  occupied  by  wealth  and  fashion. 

Knowing  that  he  prided  himself  upon  being  of  Welsh 
descent,  I  asked  him  one  day  what  he  thought  of  the 
tradition  that  Madoc,  a  Welsh  prince,  had  planted  a  col 
ony  of  his  countrymen  in  America  in  the  Twelfth  cen 
tury.  He  answered  that  he  had  become  interested  in  the 
subject  when  he  was  young  in  years;  that  he  had  read 
all  he  could  secure  of  what  had  been  printed  about  it; 
that  he  had  also  learned  some  things  from  tradition  which 
had  not  gotten  into  print,  and  that  this  country  in  early 


IV 


Introduction 


times  had  many  traditions  on  the  subject  which  came 
originally  from  the  Indians.  He  added  that  he  considered 
the  Madoc  tradition  as  plausible  and  as  worthy  of  belief 
as  any  of  the  stories  of  the  pre-Columbian  discoveries  of 
America. 

I  then  asked  him  if  any  of  the  traditions  he  had  heard 
were  connected  with  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  and  if  they 
were  so  related  would  he  much  oblige  by  giving  them  to 
me?  He  answered  that  he  was  not  at  the  Falls  of  the 
Ohio  when  Louisville  was  founded,  but  that  he  knew  some 
of  the  pioneers,  such  as  General  Glark,  Squire  Boone, 
James  Patten  and  others  whose  lives  had  been  prolonged 
to  his  times.  These  pioneers  had  intercourse  with  friend 
ly  Indians,  who  frequently  visited  the  Falls  for  the  pur 
pose  of  trade,  and  from  them  the  following  traditions  con 
nected  with  the  Falls  were  obtained. 

On  the  north  side  of  the  river,  where  Jeffersonville 
now  stands,  some  skeletons  were  exhumed  in  early  times 
with  armor  on  which  had  brass  plates  bearing  the  Mer 
maid  and  Harp,  which  belong  to  the  Welsh  coat-of-arms. 
On  the  same  side  of  the  river,  further  down,  a  piece  of 
stone  supposed  to  be  part  of  a  tombstone  was  found  with 
the  date  1186  and  what  seemed  to  be  a  name  or  the  ini 
tials  of  a  name  so  effaced  by  time  as  to  be  illegible.  If 
that  piece  of  stone  was  ever  a  tombstone  over  a  grave, 


ERRATUM. 

In  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  lines  from  the  top,  on  the  fourth 

page  of  the  Introduction,  strike  out  the  folio  wing  words  and  names— 

'Such  as  General  Clark,  Squire  f Boone,  James  "Patten  and  others"— 

which  were  inserted  here  by  mistake  and  belong  in  another  place. 


Introduction  v 

the  party  laid  beneath  it  must  have  been  of  the  Welsh 
colony  of  Madoc,  for  we  have  no  tradition  of  any  one 
but  the  Welsh  at  the  Falls  so  early  as  1186.  In  early 
times  the  forest  along  the  river  on  both  sides  of  the  Falls 
for  some  miles  presented  two  kinds  of  growth.  Along  the 
margin  of  the  river  the  giant  sycamores  and  other  trees 
of  the  primeval  forest  stood  as  if  they  had  never  been 
disturbed,  but  beyond  them  was  a  broad  belt  of  trees  of 
a  different  growth,  until  the  belt  was  passed,  when  the 
original  forest  growth  again  appeared.  This  indicated 
that  the  belt  had  been  deprived  of  its  original  forest  for 
agricultural  or  other  purposes,  and  that  a  new  forest  had 
grown  up  in  its  stead.  He  said,  however,  it  was  possible 
that  the  most  important  of  these  traditions  learned  frorii 
the  Indians  concerned  a  great  battle  fought  at  the  Falls 
of  the  Ohio  between  the  Red  Indians  and  the  White  In 
dians,  as  the  Welsh  Indians  were  called.  It  has  been  a 
long  time  ago  since  this  battle  was  fought,  but  it  was 
fought  here  and  won  by  the  Red  Indians.  In  the  final 
struggle  the  White  Indians  sought  safety  on  an  island 
since  known  as  Sandy  Island,  but  nearly  all  who  sought 
refuge  there  were  slaughtered.  The  remnant  who  escaped 
death  made  their  way  to  the  Missouri  River,  where  by 
different  movements  at  different  times  they  went  up  that 
river  a  great  distance.  They  were  known  to  exist  there 


vi  Introduction 

by  different  parties  who  came  from  there  and  talked 
Welsh  with  the  pioneers.  Some  Welshmen  living  at  the 
Falls  of  the  Ohio  in  pioneer  times  talked  with  these  White 
Indians,  and  although  there  was  a  considerable  difference 
between  the  Welsh  they  spoke  and  the  Welsh  spoken  by 
the  Indians,  yet  they  had  no  great  difficulty  in  under 
standing  one  another.  He  further  said,  concerning  this 
tradition  of  a  great  battle,  that  there  was  a  tradition 
that  many  skeletons  were  found  on  Sandy  Island  min 
gled  promiscuously  together  as  if  left  there  unburied  after 
a  great  battle,  but  that  he  had  examined  the  island  a 
number  of  times  without  rinding  a  single  human  bone, 
and  that  if  skeletons  were  ever  abundant  there  they  had 
disappeared  before  his  time. 

Mr.  Griffin  in  the  foregoing  statement  added  but  little 
to  the  Madoc  tradition  as  it  had  already  appeared  in  the 
text  and  appendix  of  the  publication  under  consideration, 
but  as  far  as  he  went  he  confirmed  the  statement  of  oth 
ers  As  these  traditions  are  fully  set  forth  in  the  text 
and  appendix  they  will  be  left  there  to  speak  for  them 
selves.  There  are  stranger  things  in  Welsh  history  than 
these  traditions.  The  Welsh  stand  out  in  history  as  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  of  peoples.  Their  patriotism  and 
endurance  and  courage  have  seldom  been  surpassed  by 
any  nation.  The  legions  of  Rome  were  not  able  to  sub- 


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Introduction  vii 

due  them  in  five  hundred  years;  the  Saxons,  Angles,  Jutes, 
and  Danes  failed  to  conquer  them  in  another  five  hundred 
years,  and  the  Anglo-Normans,  after  all  the  bloody  work 
of  their  predecessors,  failed  to  subdue  them.  They  were 
not  subdued  until  the  reign  of  Edward  the  First  of  Eng 
land,  and  were  then  the  victims  of  fraud.  When  David 
and  Llewellyn,  the  last  princes  chosen  by  the  people, 
were  gotten  rid  of  by  the  foulest  of  means  and  the  prince 
dom  of  Wales  without  an  acceptable  sovereign,  King  Ed 
ward  had  an  act  of  Parliament  passed  attaching  Wales 
to  England.  But  when  he  came  to  the  appointing  of 
a  Prince  of  Wales  the  Welsh  gave  him  to  understand 
that  they  would  never  submit  to  a  prince  of  English  ap 
pointment  unless  the  prince  chosen  were  a  native  of  Wales, 
who  spoke  the  Welsh  language  and  whose  life  was  spot 
less.  King  Edward,  seeing  that  the  Welsh  were  in  earn 
est  in  their  demands  for  a  prince  and  being  anxious  for 
such  a  peace  in  the  country  as  would  enable  him  to  in 
vest  certain  Welsh  estates  in  his  English  friends,  be 
thought  him  of  a  fraud  to  satisfy  the  Welsh.  His  wife 
Eleanor  was  soon  to  become  a  mother,  and  he  had  her 
removed  from  England  to  Caernarvon  Castle  in  Wales, 
where  she  soon  gave  birth  to  a  son.  King  Edward  then 
summoned  the  barons  and  chief  men  of  Wales  to  meet 
him  at  Ruthin  Castle,  also  in  Wales.  When  they  were 


viii  Introduction 

assembled  he  told  them  he  was  now  prepared  to  give 
them  a  prince  who  was  a  native  of  Wales,  who  could  not 
speak  a  word  of  English,  and  whose  life  no  one  could 
stain.  He  then  made  his  infant  son  Prince  of  Wales, 
and  the  firstborn  of  the  English  sovereign  has  ever  since 
been  Prince  of  Wales.  The  fraud — which  was  quite  un 
worthy  of  a  King  of  England — had  the  effect  of  subdu 
ing  the  Welsh  after  the  Romans,  the  Saxons,  the  Jutes, 
the  Danes,  and  the  Normans  had  failed  to  conquer  them 
in  a  thousand  years.  They  fought  against  odds  among 
their  protecting  mountains,  and  could  neither  be  con 
quered  nor  driven  from  their  rugged  homes  nor  made  to 
submit  to  a  foreign  ruler.  After  twelve  centuries  of  hard 
but  successful  fighting  against  frightful  odds  and  after 
many  frauds  and  deceptions  practiced  both  by  themselves 
and  the  English,  they  at  last  were  captured  by  a  fraud 
and  deception  which  it  would  seem  ought  not  to  have 
deceived  them  under  the  circumstances.  They  had  often 
before  been  deceived  by  the  English  to  their  cost,  and 
ought  not  to  have  given  credence  to  the  words  and  prom 
ises  of  a  king  whose  words  and  promises  they  had  often 
before  found  unworthy  of  belief. 

It  has  been  the  habit  of  The  Filson  Club  to  illustrate 
its  publications  with  a  likeness  of  the  author  and  such 
other  pictures  as  Were  deemed  appropriate.  When  it 


Introdttction  ix 

came  to  selecting  illustrations  for  the  twenty-third  publi 
cation  but  little  that  was  deemed  appropriate  seemed  to 
be  in  reach.  It  was  at  last  determined  to  illustrate  the 
Madoc  tradition,  which  is  the  principal  part  of  the  book, 
with  pictures  from  Wales,  the  native  land  of  Madoc  and 
his  colony.  In  a  book  entitled  "Wales  Illustrated" 
enough  and  more  than  enough  beautiful  steel  engravings 
were  found  to  answer  the  purpose.  Many  of  the  originals 
of  these  illustrations  were  connected  with  Prince  Madoc 
by  having  been  in  the  possession  of  different  members  of 
his  family,  which  made  the  pictures  particularly  appro 
priate.  There  are  but  few  lands  which  present  such  an 
array  of  natural  and  artificial  scenes  of  beauty  and  gran 
deur  as  Wales.  The  antiquarian  will  find  there  castles 
and  the  remains  of  castles,  churches  and  the  remains  of 
churches,  cathedrals  and  the  wrecks  of  cathedrals,  abbeys 
and  the  ruins  of  abbeys  which  the  Welsh  built  in  different 
ages  from  the  ancient  Celts  to  the  modern  English.  The 
buildings  show  the  style  of  architecture  used  in  fortifica 
tions  by  the  Celts,  the  Romans,  the  Saxons,  the  Danes, 
and  the  Anglo-Normans  as  the  centuries  advanced  from 
the  First  to  the  Thirteenth,  and  during  these  centuries 
castles  were  built  on  the  mountains'  heights  at  almost 
every  accessible  point,  until  the  whole  country  seemed 
to  be  covered  with  castles  and  castellated  structures  to 


x  Introduction 

secure  the  inmates  from  the  assaults  of  those  on  the  out 
side.  Abbeys  and  churches  and  cathedrals  were  also  erec 
ted  in  the  valleys  on  which  the  mountains  frowned,  at 
places  enough  to  indicate  that  the  Welsh  had  early  been 
converted  to  Christianity  and  that  they  had  kept  the 
faith  through  the  centuries.  The  lover  of  nature  will 
look  in  vain  to  find  elsewhere  so  many  striking  views 
of  mountains  and  valleys,  of  picturesque  villages,  of 
cataracts  and  of  natural  passes  between  mountain 
peaks. 

One  of  the  most  charming  of  these  illustrations  is  the 
picture  of  the  village  of  St.  Asaph  and  its  cathedral  which 
dates  back  to  the  middle  of  the  Sixth  century.  In  pioneer 
times  the  name  of  this  Welsh  village  was  given  to  a  sta 
tion  erected  by  General  Ben  Logan  in  Lincoln  County, 
Kentucky,  in  1775.  Logan  afterward,  in  1781,  donated 
a  part  of  his  land  to  the  District  of  Kentucky  for  a  court 
house  and  other  public  buildings,  and  the  town  of  Stan 
ford  was  built  thereon  and  took  the  place  of  the  original 
St.  Asaph.  Who  in  the  wilderness  of  Kentucky  could 
have  suggested  the  name  of  St.  Asaph? 

Another  is  the  castle  of  Caernarvon,  which  is  perhaps 
the  finest  castellated  structure  in  Wales.  It  was  chosen 
by  the  King  of  England  as  an  abode  worthy  of  royalty 
when  Edward  removed  his  Queen  Eleanor  there  from 


Introduction  xi 

England  and  she  there  gave  birth  to  the  first  English 
Prince  of  Wales.  He  was  born  in  fraud,  made  prince 
in  fraud,  and  was  nothing  more  than  a  fraud  all  his 
life. 

Another  is  the  castle  of  Harlech,  which  was  besieged 
and  taken  by  Owen  Gwynnedd,  the  father  of  Prince  Ma- 
doc,  in  1144.  The  assault  was  desperate  against  a  for 
tress  up  to  that  time  deemed  impregnable,  but  Owen 
Gwynnedd,  a  prince  of  exceptional  courage,  endurance, 
and  tact,  by  perseverance  reduced  walls  that  had  stood 
firm  since  the  days  of  William  Rufus. 

These  illustrations,  with  but  a  single  exception,  repre 
sent  scenes  in  Wales  with  which  Prince  Madoc  and  his 
colony  must  have  been  familiar.  That  exception  is  a  view 
of  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio  as  they  existed  in  their  primeval 
state,  when  Madoc  and  his  Welsh  colony  are  said  by 
tradition  to  have  been  here  in  the  Twelfth  century.  The 
picture  was  drawn  by  Thomas  Hutchins  while  viewing 
the  Falls  in  1766,  before  the  white  man  had  felled  a  tree 
or  in  any  way  interfered  with  the  work  of  nature.  The 
picture  drawn  by  Hutchins,  who  was  a  fine  engineer  and 
accomplished  artist,  shows  well  beside  the  Welsh  pictures, 
and  if  it  had  had  the  advantage  of  a  steel  plate,  as  they 
have  had,  it  would  have  equaled  some  of  them  as  a 
striking  landscape. 


xii  Introduction 

A  picture  might  be  drawn  of  the  fleet  of  Prince  Madoc 
leaving  Wales,  of  the  passing  through  the  Sargasso  sea, 
and  of  the  landing  in  America,  but  it  would  only  be  a 
picture  of  imagination.  So  might  an  artist  take  from 
Southey's  poem  of  Madoc  fine  word-pictures  of  the  battles 
between  Madoc 's  men  and  the  Mexicans  and  convert  them 
into  descriptive  pictures,  but  they  would  also  be  pictures 
which  added  the  doubt  of  tradition  to  the  illusion  of  the 
imagination.  On  the  contrary,  the  pictures  presented 
from  Wales — the  landscapes,  the  castles,  the  churches, 
the  cathedrals,  the  abbeys,  the  cataracts,  the  villages,  etc., 
are  all  realities  drawn  by  the  finest  of  artists  and  engraved 
on  steel  by  eminent  engravers.  They  are  all  worthy  of 
artistic  admiration,  and  we  seem  while  looking  at  them 
to  be  viewing  the  originals  from  which  they  have  been 
taken. 

All  that  is  known  of  Prince  Madoc  and  his  colony  of 
Welshmen  in  America  in  the  Twelfth  century  is  tradition. 
No  authentic  history  comes  to  our  relief  in  telling  or  hear 
ing  the  story.  All  that  is  claimed  of  the  daring  prince 
sailing  across  unknown  seas  and  into  an  unknown  world 
may  be  true  and  it  may  be  false.  But  even  when  all  is 
apparent  tradition  there  may  be  some  hidden  truth  worthy 
of  our  further  research.  The  wise  Humboldt,  when  allud 
ing  to  the  Madoc  tradition,  said  "  I  do  not  share  the  scorn 


Introduction  xiii 

with  which  national  traditions  are  so  often  treated,  and 
am  of  the  opinion  that  with  more  research  the  discovery 
of  facts  entirely  unknown  would  throw  much  light  upon 
many  historical  problems." 

Tradition,  however,  has  but  little  to  do  with  that  part 
of  the  book  under  consideration  which  attempts  to  show 
that  America  was  the  first  formed  and  the  first  inhabited 
of  the  continents.  All  that  is  claimed  on  this  part  of 
the  subject  is  the  result  of  scientific  research.  Tradition 
could  not  well  go  back  to  the  rising  of  our  globe  above 
the  universal  ocean,  because  there  was  no  one  there  to 
hand  the  matter  down  from  father  to  son  through  the 
generations.  But  geology  has  examined  the  structure  of 
the  earth  and  found  the  first  sedimentary  rocks  along 
the  line  which  separates  the  United  States  from  Canada, 
and  claims  that  here  was  the  first  continent  begun.  There 
is  no  tradition  in  the  facts  of  this,  and  none  in  the  con 
clusion  drawn  from  them.  All  is  science,  with  facts  gath 
ered  from  the  rock-ribbed  globe  and  conclusions  drawn 
from  them. 

Neither  is  the  assertion  that  America  was  the  first 
of  the  continents  which  was  inhabited  by  man  dependent 
upon  tradition.  Man  could  not  well  have  started  a  tra 
dition  about  the  first  of  his  race  and  sent  it  down  his 
descending  line  through  the  centuries.  He  would  have 


xiv  Introduction 

had  to  employ  some  such  machinery  as  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  had  in  their  numerous  gods  to  account  for  his 
own  origin.  Immortals  might  give  the  information,  but 
it  would  be  beyond  the  scope  of  plain  mortals.  Again, 
science  has  taught  us  what  we  know  about  the  subject. 
It  has  gathered  facts  from  the  bones  and  works  of  man 
found  in  the  caverns  and  hidden  places  of  the  earth,  and 
from  these  drawn  conclusions  as  to  where  and  when  and 
how  he  first  existed.  Science  may  not  be  able  to  prove 
its  conclusions  to  the  satisfaction  of  others,  but  it  would 
be  equally  hard  to  prove  the  contrary.  It  would  be  as 
difficult  to  prove  any  well-known  tradition  void  of  historic 
truth  as  to  prove  the  nebulous  origin  of  our  solar  system 
and  the  millions  of  years  our  planet  has  been  in  progres 
sion  before  reaching  its  present  state,  void  of  scientific 
determination.  We  should  not  aim  to  know  too  much 
and  to  know  that  all  we  know  is  truth.  If  tradition  can 
amuse  us  without  injury,  if  the  doubtful  story  of  King 
Arthur  and  his  Knights  of  the  Round  Table  can  give  us 
pleasure,  it  may  be  as  well  not  to  spend  too  much  time 
in  learning  whether  the  story  is  true  or  false.  There  are 
many  such  stories  that  are  just  as  good  as  if  they  were 
true,  and  let  us  have  them  as  they  are. 

The  story  of  Madoc  I  would  give  as  I  have  given  it 
in  this  monograph  whether  I  believed  it  or  not.     It  was 


ST.  ASAPH  VILLAGE 


ST.  ASAPH  CATHEDRAL 


Introduction  xv 

\ 

believed  by  Kentuckians  in  pioneer  times,  and  that  is 
reason  enough  for  repeating  it  in  later  times.  It  amused 
the  patriarchs  of  our  country  and  gave  them  many  happy 
moments  as  it  was  told  in  their  log  cabins.  And  not 
only  this,  but  it  amused  many  of  our  cultured  pioneers 
as  they  recited  it  and  believed  it.  We  put  in  books  many 
things  of  the  truth  of  which  we  know  no  more  than  we 
do  about  Madoc  and  his  Welsh  colony,  and  if  the  tradi 
tion  is  here  repeated  at  this  late  day  as  an  historic  story 

it  will  do  no  harm. 

R.  T.  DURRETT. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

THE  ATLANTIS  TRADITION 2 

THE  PHOENICIAN  TRADITION 7 

THE  CHINESE  TRADITION 11 

THE  NORSE  TRADITION 13 

THE  IRISH  TRADITION 15 

THE  MADOC  TRADITION 17 

THE  MADOC  TRADITION  IN  EUROPE 19 

THE  MADOC  TRADITION  FROM  HAKLUIT 20 

THE  MADOC  TRADITION  IN  WELSH  HISTORY 22 

THE  MADOC  TRADITION  IN  AMERICA  INTRODUCED  BY  JOHN  SMITH  28 

REVEREND  MORGAN  JONES'  STATEMENT 30 

LETTERS  FROM  REVEREND  MORGAN  EDWARDS'  HISTORY  OF 

BAPTISTS 34 

CAPTAIN  ISAAC  STEWART'S  STATEMENT 35 

CHARLES  BEATTY'S  STATEMENT 38 

BENJAMIN  SUTTON  's  STATEMENT 38 

REVEREND  JOHN  WILLIAMS'  INQUIRY  INTO  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE 

MADOC  TRADITION 38 

LEVI  HICKS  '  STATEMENT . .  39 

GEORGE  BURDER  's  WELSH  INDIANS 42 

GEORGE  CATLIN'S  WORK  ON  THE  INDIANS 44 

BRYANT  &  GAY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY 45 

THE  MADOC  TRADITION  IN  .KENTUCKY 46 

FILSON  's  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  TRADITION. 46 

OPINIONS  OF  PROMINENT  KENTUCKY  PIONEERS  AT  CLUB 

MEETING 48 

WHAT  FILSON  SAYS  IN  HIS  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY 52 

LIEUTENANT  JOSEPH  ROBERT  's  STATEMENT 54 

MAURICE  GRIFFITHS'  STATEMENT..  57 


xviii  Contents 

PAGE 

THOMAS  S.  HINDE  's  LETTER 62 

DESTRUCTION  OF  WHOLE  TRIBES  OF  INDIANS 65 

AMERICA  THE  OLDEST  OF  THE  CONTINENTS 70 

AGASSIZ  ON  AGE  OF  AMERICA 74 

AMERICA  FIRST  INHABITED  OF  THE  CONTINENTS 75 

JEFFERSON  ON  FIRST  INHABITANTS  OF  AMERICA 77 

RELICS  OF  QUATERNARY  MAN  FOUND  IN  EUROPE 78 

RELICS  OF  TERTIARY  MAN  FOUND  IN  AMERICA 79 

IMPLEMENTS  IN  GLACIAL  DRIFT  OF  DELAWARE  RIVER 79 

RELICS  IN  AURIFEROUS  SANDS  OF  CALIFORNIA 80 

THE  BOURBOIS  RIVER  MASTODON 80 

THE  MUMMY  OF  MAMMOTH  CAVE,  KENTUCKY 81 

THE  FLORIDA  REEF  SKELETON 83 

THE  SKELETON  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI  DELTA 83 

THE  MOUND  BUILDERS 83 

BURIAL  OF  PIONEER  WIDOW'S  SONS 85 

OUR  LOVE  OF  THE  ANCIENT  NATURAL 86 

APPENDIX 91 

CATLIN  ON  EXTINCTION  OF  THE  MANDANS 91 

CATLIN  ON  WELSH  COLONY 97 

WINDSOR'S  HISTORY  OF  ISLAND  OF  ATLANTIS 104 

BRYANT  &  GAY  's  HISTORY  OF  MADOC  TRADITION 108 

BANCROFT  ON  ATLANTIS  AND  ABORIGINAL  RACES  OF  AMERICA  ..  113 

GEORGE  CROGHAN  TO  GOVERNOR  DINWIDDIE 117 

SPEECH  OF  CARACTACUS  BEFORE  CLAUDIUS 120 

DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  WELSH  BY  GIRALDUS 122 

THE  "UNIVERSAL  HISTORY"  ON  THE  MADOC  TRADITION 124 

THE  WELSH  A  MARITIME  PEOPLE 126 

JOHN  WILLIAMS  ON  CULTURE  OF  THE  WELSH 129 

INFORMATION  FROM  GENERAL  BOWLES 130 

WHAT  MORGAN  JONES  KNEW  OF  THE  WELSH  INDIANS 132 

BINON'S  ACCOUNT  OF  WELSH  INDIANS.  .  133 


Contents  xix 

PAGE 

SPEECH  OF  THE  EMPEROR  MONTEZUMA 135 

SELECTIONS  FROM  THE  GENTLEMAN'S  MAGAZINE 137 

UNBELIEVERS  IN  THE  MADOC  TRADITION 143 

LORD  LITTLETON  ON  THE  MADOC  TRADITION 144 

WILLIAM  ROBERTSON  ON  THE  MADOC  TRADITION 148 

LIST  OF  THE  MEMBERS  OF  THE  FILSON  CLUB 151 

BRIEF  CATALOGUE  OF  FILSON  CLUB  PUBLICATIONS 163 

INDEX  .  173 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

OPPOSITE  PAGE 

LIKENESS  OF  COLONEL  R.  T.  DURRETT Frontispiece 

FALLS  OF  THE  OHIO  IN  STATE  OF  NATURE vi 

ST.  ASAPH  VILLAGE xiv 

ST.  ASAPH  CATHEDRAL xiv 

MOLD  VILLAGE 8 

HARLECH  CASTLE : 8 

CHIRK  CASTLE 16 

CORWEN  VILLAGE 16 

DENBIGH  CASTLE 24 

DENBIGH  VILLAGE 24 

PONT  Y  CYSSYLLTE 32 

LLANGOLLEN  VILLAGE 32 

PASS  OF  LLANBERIS 40 

RHAIADYR-Y-WENOL 40 

VIEW  NEAR  ABER 48 

LLYN  GWYNANT 48 

SNOWDON  VILLAGE 56 

FALL  OF  THE  OGWEN 56 

TREMADOC  VILLAGE 64 

RHAIADYR  Du  CATARACT 64 

FLINT  VILLAGE 72 

FLINT  CASTLE 72 

LLYN  OGWEN 80 

GWRYCH  CASTLE 80 

ABERMAW,  OR  BARMOUTH  VILLAGE 96 

RHUDDLAN  CASTLE 96 

BEAUMARIS  VILLAGE 104 

ENTRANCE  TO  BEAUMARIS  CASTLE.  .  104 


xxii  Illustrations 

OPPOSITE  PAGE 

RUTHIN  CASTLE 112 

HAWARDEN  CASTLE 112 

WELSH  POOL  VILLAGE 120 

Powis  CASTLE 120 

CAERNARVON  VILLAGE. 128 

CAERNARVON  CASTLE  128 

LLANRWST  BRIDGE 136 

LLANRWST  CHURCH 136 

BANGOR  VILLAGE •  •  144 

BANGOR  CATHEDRAL.  .                         144 


TRADITIONS 

OF  THE 

EARLIEST  VISITS  OF  FOREIGNERS 

TO 

NORTH   AMERICA 

THE   FIRST   FORMED    AND    FIRST  INHABITED 
OF  THE   CONTINENTS 

WHEN  Kentucky  was  a  part  of  Virginia  there 
was  a  tradition  widespread  and  generally  believed 
that  a  Welsh  prince  by  the  name  of  Madoc 
planted  a  colony  of  his  countrymen  in  America  about 
the  year  1170.  This  colony  was  believed  to  have  been 
located  for  some  time  at  the  Falls  of .  the  Ohio,  where, 
after  it  grew  strong  and  became  offensive  to  the  more 
numerous  aborigines,  it  was  attacked  by  overwhelming 
numbers  and  nearly  all  the  members  slaughtered.  Some 
remnants  who  escaped  the  tomahawk  and  scalping-knife 
were  scattered  among  the  different  tribes,  and  absorbed 
by  them.  In  this  way,  a  race  known  as  Welsh  Indians 
came  into  existence  in  different  parts  of  the  country, 
and  kept  alive  the  tradition  until  a  comparatively  recent 
period,  when  a  considerable  body  of  them,  located  some 
sixteen  hundred  or  more  miles  up  the  Missouri  River, 
were  exterminated  by  the  smallpox.  This  wholesale 


2  Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

destruction  by  pestilence  gradually  diminished  the  gen 
erality  of  the  belief  in  the  tradition  and  deprived  it  of 
many  of  its  advocates.  The  belief,  however,  did  not 
entirely  die,  and  will  bear  reviving  even  at  this  late 
date.  It  has  never  been  fully  written  up  in  this  coun 
try,  and  an  historic  sketch  of  it  can  hardly  fail  to  be  in 
teresting.  It  is  of  kin  to  the  pre-Columbian  discoveries 
of  America,  of  which  quite  a  number  have  been  credited 
and  a  still  greater  number  rejected.  Five  of  these  seem 
to  be  sufficiently  divested  of  myth  and  absurdity  to  ap 
proach  historic  truth,  and  may  be  mentioned  here  as 
a  kind  of  introduction  to  the  Welsh  tradition  which  is 
the  principal  subject  of  this  paper,  because  this  Welsh 
colony,  according  to  tradition,  once  resided  at  the  Falls 
of  the  Ohio. 

I.    THE  ATLANTIS   TRADITION 

Our  first  authority  for  the  existence  of  America,  and 
its  habitation  by  human  beings  thousands  of  years  be 
fore  the  discovery  of  Columbus,  was  Plato,  the  famous 
Grecian  philosopher.  He  does  not  mention  America  and 
its  inhabitants  in  so  many  words,  but  when  he  designates 
a  large  island  called  Atlantis  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean  op 
posite  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  from  which  the  inhabi 
tants  passed  over  to  the  continent  beyond  and  vice  versa, 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans  3 

the  location  of  the  continent  is  such  that  we  can  reason 
ably  infer  it  was  America,  although  it  presupposes  a  knowl 
edge  of  geography  far  in  advance  of  the  times.  This 
was  about  twelve  thousand  years  ago,  when  our  ortho 
dox  teachers  instructed  us  there  were  no  human  beings 
on  the  earth.  Modern  ethnologists,  however,  assure  us 
that  twelve  thousand  were  far  too  few  for  the  years  of 
man  upon  the  earth,  and  different  ones  give  him  an  ex 
istence  here  of  from  twenty  to  two  hundred  thousand 
or  more  years.  If  man  was  in  America  twelve  thousand 
years  ago,  as  Plato  says,  he  was  earlier  here  than  any 
of  the  many  peoples  from  which  his  origin  has  been  erro 
neously  claimed,  and  was  therefore  the  true  autochthon 
of  the  land. 

Plato,  in  his  "Timaeus"  and  "Critias,"  gives  the  At 
lantis  tradition  as  Solon,  the  wise  man  of  Greece,  learned 
it  from  the  Egyptian  priests,  while  visiting  their  coun 
try  in  search  of  knowledge  during  the  later  years  of  his 
life.  These  priests  informed  Solon  that  nine  thousand 
years  before  that  time  there  was  a  vast  island  opposite 
the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  a 
number  of  smaller  islands  near  to  it,  by  which  there  was 
communication  with  a  continent  beyond;  that  this  great 
island  had  a  dense  population  of  warlike  inhabitants, 
ruled  by  powerful  kings,  who  had  subdued  some  of  the 


4  Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

smaller  islands  and  parts  of  the  continent  beyond;  that 
these  kings  finally  combined  their  forces  for  the  purpose 
of  conquering  the  countries  inside  the  Straits  of  Gibral 
tar,  but  were  repulsed  by  the  Athenians,  and  that  after 
ward  the  great  island  and  all  its  inhabitants  were  sub 
merged  by  earthquakes  and  inundations  in  the  depths  of 
the  ocean. 

This  island  was  called  Atlantis,  and  if  there  ever  was 
such  a  body  of  land  between  Europe  and  America,  it 
might  have  been  easy  enough  for  some  of  its  inhabitants 
to  have  crossed  over  to  America  and  for  the  Americans 
to  have  crossed  over  to  Atlantis.  There  have  not  been 
wanting  scientists  who  believed  they  had  found,  in  the 
modern  world,  evidence  of  the  existence  of  this  island  in 
the  ancient  world.  On  the  southern  coast  of  England 
strata  of  fluviatile  deposit  two  hundred  miles  long  and 
two  thousand  feet  thick  had  been  laid  down  there  by  a 
large  river  of  fresh  water  running  for  a  long  time.  The 
England  of  our  day  does  not  afford  enough  land  for  such 
a  river,  and  even  if  England  once  joined  France,  as  geolo 
gists  teach,  such  a  river  running  from  France  or  Ger 
many  into  England  would  hardly  have  had  land  enough 
for  its  course.  If  Plato's  island,  however,  existed  and 
joined  the  British  Islands,  it  would  have  afforded  terri 
tory  for  such  a  river  running  from  the  southwest.  No 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans  5 

small  river  coursing  through  limited  territory  could  form 
such  a  fluviatile  deposit.  Nothing  short  of  a  volume  of 
water  such  as  flows  in  the  channel  of  the  Amazon,  the 
Mississippi,  the  Ganges,  or  the  Nile  could  have  made 
such  great  deposits  in  any  conceivable  length  of  time. 
Scientists,  moreover,  assure  us  that  some  of  the  islands 
now  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  between  America  and  Africa, 
indicate  that  they  were  once  mountains  or  highlands  of 
a  country  sunk  beneath  the  sea,  and  that  a  ridge  of  vol 
canic  wrecks  along  the  trend  of  these  islands,  on  the  bot 
tom  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  assures  us  of  a  sunken  conti 
nent  or  vast  island  submerged.  An  island,  extending  east 
and  west  from  the  neighborhood  of  the  Straits  of  Gibral 
tar  to  the  vicinity  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  with  a  sufficient 
width  from  north  to  south,  would  be  large  enough  for 
the  Atlantis  of  Plato  and  for  such  a  mighty  river,  and 
to  leave  when  submerged  such  remnants  of  its  former 
greatness  as  the  British  Isles,  the  Azores,  the  Madeiras, 
the  Canaries,  and  the  Bermudas. 

It  was  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  the 
Christian  era  when  the  Egyptian  priests  told  Solon  that 
nine  thousand  years  before  that  time  the  Atlantic  island 
was  sunk  in  the  sea;  so  that  from  the  date  of  that  catas 
trophe  to  our  times  about  twelve  thousand  years  have 
elapsed.  This  was  time  sufficient  to  have  so  changed 


6  Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

the  geography  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  the  surround 
ing  continents  as  to  make  us  moderns  unable  to  deter 
mine  whether  such  an  island  ever  existed. 

It  may  be  wiser,  however,  to  accept  as  founded  in 
truth  what  the  Egyptian  priests  told  Solon  about  Atlan 
tis  than  to  dismiss  it  as  a  myth.  They  lived  nearer  the 
time  of  Atlantis  than  we  do,  and  may  have  known  more 
about  it.  They  stated  that  they  had  records  in  their 
temples  about  the  cataclysm  which  destroyed  the  island, 
and  although  nine  thousand  years  seem  a  long  time  for 
such  records,  modern  discoveries  of  human  relics  in  bur 
ied  cities  of  both  hemispheres  are  yearly  taking  us  back 
further  and  further  toward  this  shadowy  past.  The 
way  is  yet  long  to  the  confines  of  this  remote  period, 
but  while  older  and  older  records  are  constantly  being 
found  on  the  land,  human  relics  amid  seismic  wrecks 
may  also  be  lifted  from  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  which 
will  help  to  convince  the  incredulous  that  a  vast  island 
between  Europe  and  America  was  once  submerged  with 
all  its  people,  as  stated  by  the  Egyptian  priests. 

This  account  of  Atlantis  by  Plato  leaves  undeter 
mined  whether  America  was  originally  peopled  from  At 
lantis  or  whether  Atlantis  drew  its  primal  inhabitants 
from  America.  It  is  as  easy  to  assert  or  prove  the  one 
as  the  other;  but  as  Plato  has  not  specifically  decided 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans  7 

the  question,  I  shall  not  presume  a  decision.  It  is  suf 
ficient  for  my  purpose  that  Plato  says  the  Atlantians 
subdued  parts  of  the  continent  which  by  its  location 
must  have  been  America,  which  they  could  not  have 
done  unless  there  had  been  continental  inhabitants  there 
to  subdue.  The  Atlantians  would  hardly  have  peopled 
the  neighboring  continent  for  the  sole  purpose  of  its  sub 
jugation,  and  it  can  not  be  an  unwarranted  inference, 
therefore,  that  America  was  not  indebted  to  Atlantis 
for  its  population. 

II.     THE   PHOENICIAN  TRADITION 

Diodorus  Siculus,  who  flourished  three-quarters  of  a 
century  before  the  Christian  era,  furnished  a  somewhat 
detailed  account  of  a  great  island  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
west  of  Africa.  In  the  second  chapter  of  the  fifth  book 
of  his  "Historical  Library"  he  says  that  opposite  to  Af 
rica  lies  a  very  great  island  in  the  vast  ocean,  of  many 
days'  sail  from  Libia  westward,  which  was  unknown 
for  a  long  time  because  of  its  remote  situation;  that  it 
was  finally  discovered,  accidentally,  by  some  Phoenicians 
sailing  along  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  who  were  prevent 
ed  from  landing  and  driven  far  to  the  west  by  violent 
storms;  that  they  found  a  new  country,  rich  in  fauna  and 
flora  and  in  everything  suitable  to  the  wants  of  man ;  that 


8  Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

it  was  the  intention  of  the  Etrurians  to  plant  colonies 
there,  but  they  were  prevented  by  the  Carthaginians,  who 
feared  too  many  of  their  people  might  emigrate,  and, 
besides,  who  wanted  to  preserve  the  new  country  for  their 
own  use  as  a  place  of  refuge  in  case  of  trouble  at  home. 

Now,  if  the  Phoenicians  in  ancient  times  discovered 
a  very  great  island  west  of  Africa  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
it  could  hardly  have  been  one  of  the  Azores,  the  Ma 
deiras,  the  Canaries,  or  the  Cape  Verdes,  because  no  one 
of  these  groups  is  large  enough  or  distant  enough  from 
Africa  to  answer  the  description.  It  could  not  have 
been  one  of  the  British  Islands,  because  they  are  specifi 
cally  mentioned  in  the  same  history.  Newfoundland 
was  too  far  north  and  had  too  severe  a  climate  and  was 
not  large  enough  for  the  description.  It  might  have 
been  the  Atlantis  of  Plato  before  that  island  had  gone 
to  the  bottom  of  the  sea. 

All  of  Plato's  island,  however,  might  not  have  gone 
down.  Indeed,  it  is  possible  that  the  Azores,  the  Ma 
deiras,  the  Canaries,  and  even  the  British  Islands,  as 
parts  of  the  ill-fated  island,  may  have  been  left  above 
water  when  the  main  island  went  down  amid  earthquakes 
and  inundations.  Diodorus  might  have  found  his  island 
in  a  combination  of  the  unsubmerged  remnants  of  Plato's 
great  island  which  were  afterward  submerged,  or  the 


MOLD  VILLAGE 


HARLECH  CASTLE 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans  9 

island  indicated  by  him  might  have  been  America.  He 
certainly  could  not  have  found  such  a  country  and  such 
a  people  as  he  describes  in  America  as  it  was  at  the  time 
of  Columbus.  We  must  not  forget,  however,  that  there 
were  people  in  America  for  many  centuries  before  the 
Red  Indians.  We  call  some  of  them  Mound-builders  for 
want  of  a  better  name,  and  we  know  precious  little  about 
them.  They  left  mounds  of  earth  and  implements  of 
copper  and  vessels  of  pottery  and  other  evidences  of  a 
civilization  far  above  that  of  the  Indians  found  here  at 
the  Columbian  discovery  of  America.  If  a  European 
had  been  in  America  some  thousands  of  years  ago  and 
seen  one  of  these  old  Mound-builders  seated  upon  his 
mound  smoking  his  pipe  and  giving  orders  to  numerous 
subjects  who  were  working  his  fields  of  maize  and  tobac 
co,  cultivating  his  gardens  and  orchards,  and  having 
plenty  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth  and  the  product  of  the 
fields  around  him,  he  might  have  seen  something  of  the 
picture  Diodorus  drew  for  his  island.  These  Mound- 
builders,  however,  passed  away  many  centuries  ago  and 
left  neither  a  history,  a  tradition,  or  a  name.  They  may 
have  been  exterminated  by  immigrants  from  the  east, 
who  after  a  conquest  established  themselves  as  the  mod 
ern  Indians  on  a  lower  plane  of  civilization.  The  fol 
lowing  is  what  Diodorus  says  of  his  island: 


io          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

"The  soil  here  is  very  fruitful,  a  great  part  whereof 
is  mountainous,  but  much  likewise  champaign,  which  is 
the  most  sweet  and  pleasant  part  of  all  the  rest;  for 
it  is  watered  with  several  navigable  rivers,  beautified 
with  many  gardens  of  pleasure,  planted  with  divers  sorts 
of  trees,  and  abundance  of  orchards,  interlaced  with  cur 
rents  of  sweet  water.  The  towns  are  adorned  with  state 
ly  buildings,  and  banquetting  houses  up  and  down,  pleas 
antly  situated  in  their  gardens  and  orchards.  And  here 
they  recreate  themselves  in  summer-time  as  in  places 
accommodated  for  pleasure  and  delight. 

"The  mountainous  part  of  the  country  is  clothed 
with  many  large  woods  and  all  manner  of  fruit  trees, 
and  for  the  greater  delight  and  diversion  of  people  in 
these  mountains  they  ever  and  anon  open  themselves 
into  pleasant  vales,  watered  with  fountains  and  refresh 
ing  springs,  and  indeed  the  whole  island  abounds  with 
springs  of  sweet  water,  whence  the  inhabitants  not  only 
reap  pleasure  and  delight,  but  improve  in  health  and 
strength  of  body. 

"  There  you  may  have  game  enough  in  hunting  all  sorts 
of  wild  beasts,  of  which  there  is  such  plenty  that  in  their 
feasts  there  is  nothing  wanting  either  as  to  pomp  or  de 
light.  The  adjoining  sea  furnished  them  plentifully  with 
fish,  for  the  ocean  there  naturally  abounds  with  all  sorts. 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans          1 1 

"The  air  and  climate  in  this  island  is  very  mild  and 
healthful,  so  that  the  trees  bear  fruit  (and  other  things 
that  are  produced  there  are  fresh  and  beautiful)  most 
part  of  the  year;  so  that  this  island  (for  the  excellency 
of  it  in  all  respects)  seems  rather  to  be  the  residence  of 
some  of  the  gods  than  of  man." 

In  addition  to  this  glowing  description  of  the  island, 
Diodorus  expressly  states  that  the  Carthaginians  permit 
ted  no  colonies  to  be  planted  there,  but  reserved  the 
island  for  their  own  habitation  if  political  events  should 
make  it  necessary  for  their  abandoning  their  own  home. 
If,  therefore,  the  island  of  Diodorus  was  America,  it  was 
not  indebted  to  the  Etrurians,  the  Carthaginians,  or  any 
other  ancient  nation  for  its  inhabitants.  It  was  fully 
inhabited  when  discovered  by  the  Phoenicians,  and  must 
have  been  inhabited  for  a  long  time  to  have  enabled  its 
people  to  have  arrived  at  such  a  stage  of  civilization  and 
luxury  as  is  assigned  to  them. 

III.     THE  CHINESE  TRADITION 

The  third  account  we  have  of  an  early  visit  to  Amer 
ica  is  that  of  a  Buddhist  priest  from  China,  in  the  Fifth 
century  of  our  era.  When  the  religion  of  Buddha  was 
introduced  into  China  the  Celestials  became  propagan 
dists.  Their  missionaries  went  from  land  to  land  bearing 


i 2          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

images  of  Buddha  and  preaching  his  doctrine  for  the 
conversion  of  souls.  A  monk  by  the  name  of  Hoei  Schin 
made  a  very  long  voyage  and  claimed  to  have  reached 
what  has  been  pronounced  the  American  continent,  in 
the  year  499.  He  called  the  country  Fusang,  and  it 
was  claimed  to  have  been  explored  probably  as  far  south 
as  Mexico.  An  account  of  his  discoveries  is  recorded  in 
the  Year  Books  of  China,  and  a  translation  of  the  im 
portant  parts  of  the"  narrative  is  given  in  Leland's  "Fu 
sang,  or  the  Discovery  of  America."  There  is  no  suffi 
cient  reason  why  Hoei  Schin  might  not  have  made  the 
journey  to  America  at  the  close  of  the  Fifth  century. 
He  could  have  gone  from  China  to  the  Japanese  Islands 
and  thence  sailed  to  the  Kurile  Islands,  thence  to  the 
Aleutian  Islands  and  thence  to  the  continent  of  America, 
without  being  out  of  sight  of  land  long  enough  to  alarm 
any  experienced  or  capable  sailor.  It  is  quite  as  likely, 
however,  if  there  was  a  Mongolian  discovery  of  Amer 
ica,  that  some  of  those  Scythians  who  inhabited  the  north 
east  of  Asia  were  the  pioneers  who  led  the  way  across 
Bering  Strait  and  landed  in  America,  as  that  another 
Mongolian  from  distant  China  made  the  discovery.  The 
Scythians  who  dwelt  in  bleak  Siberia  went  farther  to 
make  war  upon  distant  countries  than  they  would  have 
to  go  to  cross  Bering  Strait  and  become  discoverers  of 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans          13 

America.  The  resemblance  of  the  American  Indian  to 
the  Asiatic  races  is  held  by  some  to  establish  the  theory 
that  Mongolians  did  cross  from  the  northeast  of  Asia  to 
America,  but  would  it  not  have  been  as  easy  for  Amer 
icans  to  have  crossed  over  to  Asia  as  for  Asiatics  to  have 
come  to  America?  Either  would  have  been  possible,  and 
one  is  as  probable  as  the  other.  The  Asiatic  races  could 
as  satisfactorily  be  traced  back  to  the  Americans  as  the 
Americans  to  the  Asiatics.  Hoei  Schin,  however,  if  he 
was  a  discoverer  of  America,  found  America  according 
to  his  own  account  already  peopled,  and  by  a  people 
who  must  have  been  here  for  a  long  time. 

IV.     THE  NORSE  TRADITION 

The  next  in  age  of  the  alleged  pre-Columbian  dis 
coveries  was  by  Norsemen  at  the  close  of  the  Tenth  cen 
tury  or  the  beginning  of  the  Eleventh.  Iceland  is  claimed 
to  have  been  visited  by  the  Greek  geographer  Pytheas 
several  centuries  before  the  Christian  era,  but  little  was 
known  of  it  until  the  Norwegians  discovered  it  in  860. 
Whatever  civilization  has  done  for  this  cold  and  barren 
island,  in  fitting  it  for  human  habitation,  it  owes  to  the 
Norsemen,  who  founded  there  a  republic  in  the  year  874. 
It  is  claimed  that  Bjarne  Herjulson,  while  searching  for 
his  father,  who  in  his  absence  had  emigrated  from  Ice- 


1 4          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

land  to  Greenland,  was  driven  by  contrary  winds  as  far 
south  as  Nantucket,  on  the  American  shore,  and  in  coast 
ing  northward  in  search  of  Greenland  saw  Newfoundland 
and    Nova    Scotia    before    he    reached    Greenland.     The 
Norse   discovery  of  the  continent  of  America,   however, 
is  with  better  evidence   attributed  to   Lief  Erickson,   in 
the  year   1000.     Nor  is  there  sufficient  reason  why  this 
discovery  may  not  have  been  made  by  Lief  as  claimed. 
If  Norwegian  ships  could  sail  from  Norway  to   Iceland 
and  from  Iceland  to  Greenland,  as  they  admittedly  did, 
they  could  surely  go  from  Greenland  to  America.     The 
distance  from  Norway  to  Iceland  is  about  seven  hundred 
miles,  that  from  Iceland  to  Greenland  about  three  hun 
dred  miles,  and  that  from  Greenland  to  America  about 
five  hundred  miles.     The  wonder  would  rather  be  that 
they  did  not  discover  America,  after  discovering  Iceland 
and  Greenland.     They  were  great  navigators,  and  made 
voyages   to    England,    France,    Italy,    Greece,    and   other 
countries  far  more   distant,   and  there   can  be   no  good 
reason  why  they  should  not  have  crossed  the  compara 
tively  few  miles  of  water  between  Greenland  and  Amer 
ica,    as    their    sagas    record    they    did.     Their    discovery, 
however,  amounted  to  nothing  so  far  as  the  planting  of 
a  permanent  colony  is  concerned.     Neither  the  round  tow 
er  of  Newport  nor  the  hieroglyphic  rock  of  Dighton,  nor 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans          15 

the  armored  skeleton  of  Fall  River,  has  taught  us  any 
thing  more  than  that  if  the  Norsemen  came,  they  also 
went.  It  would  have  been  as  easy  for  the  aboriginal 
Americans  to  discover  Greenland  and  Iceland  and  Nor 
way  as  for  the  vikings  of  these  countries  to  discover  Amer 
ica.  The  same  arguments  which  apply  to  the  discovery 
of  the  one  apply  with  equal  force  to  the  other.  The 
Norsemen,  moreover,  fought  battles  with  the  natives, 
which  show  that  America  was  already  inhabited  when 
they  visited  it. 

V.     THE   IRISH  TRADITION 

Rasmus  B.  Anderson,  in  his  book  entitled  "America 
Not  Discovered  by  Columbus,"  published  in  1877,  be 
sides  giving  a  full  account  of  the  Norse  discovery  of  Amer 
ica  and  partial  accounts  of  other  discoveries,  also  gives 
the  substance  of  a  saga  which  credits  the  Irish  with  a 
colony  in  America  before  1029.  They  were  found  there 
by  some  Icelanders  who  had  been  to  Ireland  on  a  trad 
ing  expedition,  and  were  called  Irish  because  "it  rather 
appeared  to  them  that  they  spoke  Irish."  This  was 
putting  the  Irish  speech  of  the  colonists  rather  mildly, 
but  the  colonists  themselves  were  not  so  mild  when  an 
Icelandic  ship,  in  after  years,  landed  among  them.  They 
seized  and  bound  the  captain  and  his  crew,  with  the  in- 


1 6          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

hospitable  intention  of  putting  them  all  to  death.  When, 
however,  they  brought  the  prisoners  -before  their  chief, 
he  released  them  and  bade  them  get  out  of  the  country 
and  never  return.  The  chief  who  was  thus  merciful 
was  a  famous  viking  named  Bjarni  Asbrandon,  who  had 
been  compelled  to  leave  Iceland  on  account  of  his  too 
free  habits  with  married  women.  He  was  expatriated 
with  the  understanding  that  he  was  to  be  gone  one  year, 
but  had  never  been  heard  of  since  his  departure  until 
this  occasion,  after  thirty  years  had  elapsed.  He  had 
in  some  way  gotten  into  this  Irish  colony,  south  of  the 
Norse  settlement  and  supposed  to  be  somewhere  between 
Chesapeake  Bay  and  Florida.  It  was  known  as  Great 
Ireland  or  White  Man's  Land,  and  it  is  not  impossible 
that  the  Irish  should  have  discovered  this  part  of  the 
country.  They  were  good  navigators  in  the  early  cen 
turies,  and  are  known  to  have  gone  to  the  Faroe  Islands 
and  to  Iceland.  If  they  could  get  safely  to  Iceland  and 
back  again  to  Ireland  they  could  certainly  go  to  America. 
But  the  same  argument  applies  to  the  Irish  as  to  the 
other  alleged  discoverers  of  America.  It  would  have 
been  as  easy  for  the  Americans  to  discover  Ireland  by 
way  of  Iceland  and  the  Faroe  Islands  as  for  the  Irish 
to  discover  America  by  the  same  route.  When  the  Irish 
colonized  or  discovered  land  in  America  they  were  taken 


CHIRK  CASTLE 


CORWEN  VILLAGE 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans          17 

prisoners  by  the  Americans,  and  when  they  were  released 
(instead  of  being  put  to  death)  they  proceeded  to  de 
populate  America,  so  far  as  they  were  concerned,  by 
going  back  to  Ireland,  instead  of  helping  to  people  it. 
America  was  not,  therefore,  indebted  to  Ireland  for  her 
population. 

VI.     THE  MADOC   TRADITION 

And  now,  having  presented  five  of  the  principal  tra 
ditions  of  pre-Columbian  discoveries  in  America,  all  of 
which  occurred  before  the  close  of  the  Eleventh  century 
of  the  Christian  era,  I  shall  take  up  that  of  the  Welsh 
in  the  Twelfth  century.  This  was  one  of  the  most  pop 
ular  of  these  traditions,  especially  in  Virginia,  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  Kentucky.  It  was  not  only  believed  by  the 
common  people,  but  got  into  the  newspapers  and  maga 
zines  and  books,  and  was  credited  by  the  learned  as  well 
as  by  the  ignorant.  There  were  a  few  Welshmen  among 
the  pioneers,  and  they  took  pride  in  making  the  Welsh 
tradition  as  popular  as  possible.  There  was  scarcely  a 
log  cabin  in  which  the  subject  was  not  discussed  by  the 
family,  and  in  the  stations  where  families  were  numerous 
it  furnished  the  material  for  many  stories  which  were 
told  to  eager  listeners.  Madoc  was  the  hero  of  the  hour. 
His  leaving  Wales  with  ships  loaded  with  his  country- 


1 8          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

men,  and  sailing  across  an  unknown  sea  to  inhabit  an 
unknown  land  to  avoid  civil  war  with  his  brothers  for 
the  crown  of  his  father,  was  an  act  of  self-sacrifice  which 
they  deemed  worthy  of  universal  admiration.  They  were 
not  sure  at  what  point  he  landed  in  America,  but  they 
were  sure  that  he  did  land  and  that  his  descendants  once 
dwelt  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  from  which  they  were 
driven  by  a  force  too  powerful  to  resist.  They  believed 
that  the  mounds  and  earthworks  in  the  Ohio  and  the 
Mississippi  valleys  had  been  built  by  the  Welsh  for  pur 
poses  not  fully  understood  by  moderns,  but  nevertheless 
erected  by  them  for  purposes  of  their  own.  They  be 
lieved  that  those  strange  tombs  made  by  encasing  dead 
bodies  between  six  flat  stones  forming  the  sides  and  ends 
and  top  and  bottom  of  rough  sarcophagi  and  placing 
them  side  by  side  and  piling  them  one  upon  another, 
until  a  kind  of  pyramid  was  constructed  holding  a  great 
number  of  their  dead,  were  made  by  the  Welsh.  If  they 
had  any  doubt  about  the  Madoc  colony,  all  doubts  were 
removed  by  an  occasional  Welsh  Indian  coming  among 
them  from  a  distant  tribe,  for  the  purpose  of  trade,  and 
talking  to  Welshmen  among  the  pioneers  in  their  own 
language. 

I  propose  now  to  present  what  I  have  been  able  to 
learn   concerning   this   Welsh   tradition,    both   in   Europe 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans          19 

and  America.  I  shall  quote  from  the  authorities  so  as 
to  make  somewhat  of  a  documentary  narrative,  and  thus 
place  the  authorities  within  reach  of  the  general  reader, 
which  is  not  possible  while  they  are  scattered  through 
rare  manuscripts  and  prints  both  in  this  country  and 
in  Europe.  With  these  rare  documents  before  them  all 
can  judge  for  themselves  as  to  the  reliability  of  the  Madoc 
tradition. 

VII.    THE  MADOC  TRADITION  IN   EUROPE 

The  first  account  of  the  migration  of  Prince  Madoc 
to  unknown  lands  was  printed  in  the  voyages  of  Hakluit, 
first  published  in  London  in  1582.  Hakluit  took  it  from 
the  writings  of  Gutton  Owen,  a  Welsh  bard  who  flour 
ished  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Fourteenth  and  early  part 
of  the  Fifteenth  century,  and  who  in  turn  had  copied 
it  from  the  records  of  the  abbeys  of  Conway  in  North 
Wales  and  Strata  Florida  in  South  Wales.  It  was  the 
custom  of  the  Welsh  at  that  time  to  record  important 
events  in  their  abbeys,  as  the  Egyptians  did  in  their  tem 
ples.  The  bards,  who  were  the  .historians  of  the  times, 
had  free  access  to  these  abbeys  and  copied  the  records 
and  repeated  or  sang  them  on  public  occasions.  Gutton 
Owen  was  a  well-known  bard,  and  of  sufficient  stand 
ing  for  King  Henry  VII  to  appoint  him  one  of  a  com- 


20          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

mission  to  search  the  records  of  Wales  for  the  genealogy 
of  Owen  Tudor,  his  grandfather.  Hence  Hakluit  gives 
him  as  authority  for  the  Madoc  tradition.  This  tradition 
appears  in  Hakluit 's  "Divers  Voyages  Touching  the 
Discovery  of  America,  etc.,"  first  published  in  1582, 
as  follows: 

The  Madoc  Tradition  from  Hakluit's  Voyages- 
Volume  3,  Page  1 

"After  the  death  of  Owen  Gwynedd,  his  sonnes  fell 
at  debate  who  should  inherit  after  him,  for  the  eldest 
sonne  born  in  Matrimony  Edward  or  Jorwerth  Drwidion 
(Drwyndwn)  was  counted  unmeet  to  govern  because  of 
the  maime  upon  his  face,  and  Howel  that  took  upon  him 
the  rule,  was  a  base  sonne,  begotten  upon  an  Irish  woman. 
Therefore,  David,  another  Sonne,  gathered  all  the  power  he 
could  and  came  against  Howel,  and  fighting  with  him,  slew 
him  and  afterwards  enjoyed  quietly  the  whole  land  of  North 
Wales  until  his  brother  Jorwerth 's  Sonne  came  to  age. 

"Madoc,  another  of  Owen  Gwyneth's  Sonnes,  left 
the  land  in  contentions  betwixt  his  brethren  and  pre 
pared  certain  ships  with  men  and  munition  and  sought 
adventures  by  seas,  sailing  west  and  leaving  the  coast 
of  Ireland  so  farre  north,  that  he  came  to  a  land  unknown, 
where  he  saw  many  strange  things. 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         2 1 

"This  land  must  needs  be  some  parts  of  the  Country, 
of  which  the  Spanyards  affirm  themselves  to  be  the  first 
Finders  since  Hanno's  Time;  whereupon  it  is  manifest 
that  that  country  was  by  Britons  discovered  long  before 
Columbus  led  any  Spanyards  thither. 

"  Of  the  voyage  and  return  of  this  Madoc,  there  be 
many  fables  framed,  as  the  common  people  do  use  in 
distance  of  place  and  length  of  time,  rather  to  augment 
than  to  diminish,  but  sure  it  is,  there  he  was.  And  after 
he  had  returned  home,  and  declared  the  pleasant  and 
fruitful  countries,  that  he  had  seen  without  inhabitants; 
and  upon  the  contrary,  for  what  barren  and  wild  ground 
his  brothers  and  nephews  did  murther  one  another,  he 
prepared  a  number  of  ships  and  got  with  him  such  Men 
and  Women  as  were  desirous  to  live  in  quietness,  and 
taking  leave  of  his  friends,  took  his  journey  thitherwards 
again. 

"Therefore,  it  is  supposed  that  he  and  his  people 
inhabited  part  of  those  countries,  for  it  appeareth  by  Fran 
cis  Lopez  de  Comara  that  in  Acuzamil,  and  other  places, 
the  people  honoured  the  Cross.  Whereby  it  may  be 
gathered  that  Christians  had  been  there  before  the  com 
ing  of  the  Spanyards  but  because  this  people  were  not 
many,  they  followed  the  manner  of  the  land  which  they 
came  to,  and  the  language  they  found  there. 


22          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

"This  Madoc  arriving  in  that  western  country,  unto 
the  which  he  came  in  the  year  1170,  left  most  of  his  peo 
ple  there,  and  returning  back  for  more  of  his  own  nation, 
acquaintance  and  friends  to  inhabit  that  fair  land  and 
large  country,  went  thither  again  with  Ten  Sailles,  as  I  find 
noted  by  Gutton  Owen.  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  land 
whereunto  he  came  was  some  part  of  the  West  Indies." 

This  Madoc  tradition  next  appears  in  the  history 
of  Wales  by  Caradoc,  translated  into  English  by  Llwyd 
and  published  by  Powell  in  1584.  It  does  not,  however, 
appear  in  the  original  work  of  Caradoc,  whose  history 
only  comes  down  to  the  year  1157.  Llwyd,  the  trans 
lator,  added  to  the  original  text  of  Caradoc  the  Madoc 
tradition,  which  he  got  from  the  abbeys  of  Conway  and 
Strata  Florida,  as  Owen  had  gotten  what  was  published 
by  Hakluit.  The  source  of  the  tradition  is  therefore 
the  same  in  both  Hakluit  and  Powell  and  the  facts  sub 
stantially  the  same.  The  following  is  the  Welsh  tradi 
tion  as  given  in  the  new  edition  (London,  1812)  of 
Powell's  Caradoc,  pages  194-196: 

The  Madoc  Tradition  in  Welsh  History 

"  Prince  Owen  Gwynedd  being  dead  the  succession 
was  of  right  to  descend  to  his  eldest  legitimate  son,  lor- 
werth  Drwydwn,  otherwise  called  Edward  with  the  Bro- 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans          23 

ken  Nose;  but  by  reason  of  that  blemish  upon  his  face, 
he  was  laid  aside  as  unfit  to  take  upon  him  the  govern 
ment  of  North  Wales.  Therefore  his  younger  brothers 
began  every  one  to  aspire,  in  hopes  of  succeeding  their 
father;  but  Howel,  who  was  of  all  the  eldest,  but  base 
born  begotten  of  an  Irish  woman,  finding  they  could  not 
agree,  stept  in  himself  and  took  upon  him  the  govern 
ment.  But  David,  who  was  legitimately  born  could  not 
brook  that  a  bastard  should  ascend  his  father's  throne, 
and  therefore  he  made  all  the  preparations  possible  to 
pull  him  down.  Howel,  on  the  other  hand,  was  as  reso 
lute  to  maintain  his  ground,  and  was  not  willing  so  quick 
ly  to  deliver  up,  what  he  had  not  very  long  got  posses 
sion  of;  and  so  both  brothers  meeting  together  in  the 
field,  were  resolved  to  try  their  title  by  the  point  of  the 
sword.  The  battle  had  not  lasted  long,  but  Howel  was 
slain;  and  then  David  was  unanimously  proclaimed  and 
saluted  Prince  of  North  Wales,  which  principality  he  en 
joyed  without  any  molestation,  till  Llewlyn,  lorwerth 
Drwynden's  son  came  of  age,  -as  will  hereafter  appear. 
But  Madoc,  another  of  Owen  Gwynedd's  sons,  finding 
how  his  brothers  contended  for  the  principality,  and  that 
his  native  country  was  like  to  be  turmoiled  in  a  civil  war, 
did  think  it  his  better  prudence  to  try  his  fortune  abroad; 
and  therefore  leaving  North  Wales  in  a  very  unsettled 


24          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

condition,  sailed  with  a  small  fleet  of  ships  which  he  had 
rigged  and  manned  for  that  purpose,  to  the  westward; 
and  leaving  Ireland  on  the  north,  he  came  at  length  to 
an  unknown  country,  where  most  things  appeared  to  him 
new  and  uncustomary,  and  the  manner  of  the  natives 
far  different  from  what  he  had  seen  in  Europe.  This 
country,  says  the  learned  H.  Llyod,  must  of  necessity 
be  some  part  of  that  vast  tract  of  ground,  of  which  the 
Spaniards,  since  Hanno's  time,  boast  themselves  to  be 
the  first  discoverers,  and  which  by  order  of  Cosmography, 
seems  to  be  some  part  of  Nova  Hispania,  or  Florida; 
where  by  it  is  manifested,  that  this  country  was  discov 
ered  by  the  Britains,  long  before  either  Columbus  or  Amer- 
icus  Vesputius  sailed  thither.  But  concerning  Madoc's 
voyage  to  this  country,  and  afterwards  his  return  from 
thence,  there  are  many  fabulous  stories  and  idle  tales  in 
vented  by  the  vulgar,  who  are  sure  never  to  diminish 
from  what  they  hear,  but  will  add  to  and  increase  any 
fable  as  far  as  their  invention  will  prompt  them.  How 
ever,  says  the  same  author,  it  is  certain  that  Madoc  ar 
rived  in  this  country,  and  after  he  had  viewed  the  fer 
tility  and  pleasantness  of  it,  he  thought  it  expedient  to 
invite  more  of  his  countrymen  out  of  Britain;  and  there 
fore  leaving  most  of  those  he  had  brought  with  him  al 
ready  behind,  he  returned  for  Wales.  Being  arrived  there, 


DENBIGH  CASTLE 


DENBIGH  VILLAGE 


or 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         25 

he  began  to  acquaint  his  friends  with  what  a  fair  and 
extensive  land  he  had  met  with,  void  of  any  inhabitants, 
whilst  they  employed  all  their  skill  to  supplant  one  an 
other,  only  for  a  ragged  portion  of  rocks  and  mountains; 
and  therefore  he  would  persuade  them  to  change  their 
present  state  of  danger  and  continual  clashings  for  a 
more  quiet  being  of  ease  and  enjoyment.  And  so  having 
got  a  considerable  number  of  Welsh  together,  he  bid 
adieu  to  his  native  country,  and  sailed  with  ten  ships 
back  to  them  he  had  left  behind.  It  is  therefore  to  be 
supposed,  says  our  author,  that  Madoc  and  his  people 
inhabited  part  of  that  country,  since  called  Florida  by 
reason  that  it  appears  from  Francis  Loves,  an  author 
of  no  small  reputation,  that  in  Acusanus  and  other  places, 
the  people  honoured  and  worshipped  the  cross;  whence 
it  may  be  naturally  concluded  that  Christians  had  been 
there  before  the  coming  of  the  Spaniards;  and  who  these 
Christians  might  be,  unless  it  were  this  colony  of  Madoc 's, 
it  cannot  be  easily  imagined.  But  by  reason  that  the 
Welsh  who  came  over,  were  not  many,  they  intermixed 
in  a  few  years  with  the  natives  of  the  country  and 
so  following  their  manners  and  using  their  language,  they 
became  at  length  undistinguishable  from  the  barbarians. 
But  the  country  which  Madoc  landed  in,  is  by  the 
learned  Dr.  Powell  supposed  to  be  part  of  Mexico  for 


26          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

which  conjecture  he  lays  down  these  following  rea 
sons  : —  first  as  it  is  recorded  in  the  Spanish  chronicles 
of  the  conquest  of  the  West  Indies  the  inhabitants  and 
natives  of  that  country  affirm  by  tradition,  that  their 
rulers  descended  from  a  strange  nation,  which  came  thith 
er  from  a  strange  country;  as  it  was  confessed  by  King 
Montezuma,  in  a  speech  at  his  submission  to  the  King 
of  Castile,  before  Hernando  Cortez,  the  Spanish  general. 
And  then  the  British  words  and  names  of  places  used 
in  that  country,  even  at  this  day  do  undoubtedly  argue 
the  same;  as  when  they  speak  and  confabulate  together, 
they  use  this  British  word,  Gwarando,  which  signifies 
to  hearken,  or  listen,  and  a  certain  bird  with  a  white 
head,  they  call  Pengwyn,  which  signifies  the  'same  in 
Welsh.  But  for  a  more  complete  confirmation  of  this, 
the  island  of  Corroeso,  the  cape  of  Bryton,  the  river  of 
Gwyndor,  and  the  white  rock  of  Pengwyn,  which  are 
all  British  words,  do  manifestly  shew,  that  it  was  that 
country  which  Madoc  and  his  people  inhabited." 

The  closing  paragraph  of  the  preface  to  Doctor  Pow 
ell  's  Caradoc  (new  edition,  London,  1812)  explains  how 
the  Madoc  tradition  got  into  the  work  of  Caradoc  after 
his  death.  Caradoc 's  history  ends  with  the  year  1157, 
and  Llyod  undertook  to  make  such  additions  as  would 
bring  it  down  to  1270  and  then  publish  the  whole  in  an 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         27 

English  translation.  Among  the  additions  was  the  Ma- 
doc  tradition  obtained  from  the  Welsh  abbeys  through 
Gutton  Owen.  Death,  however,  overtook  Llyod  before 
he  could  publish  his  work,  and  Doctor  Powell  becoming 
possessed  of  his  manuscript  published  it  with  his  own 
edition  in  1584. 

In  the  foregoing  extracts  from  Hakluit  and  Powell, 
which  contain  the  earliest  information  outside  of  the 
Welsh  abbeys  on  the  subject,  nothing  appears  to  deter 
mine  the  country  to  which  Madoc  went.  He  is  simply 
represented  as  leaving  Ireland  to  the  north  and  sailing 
west  until  he  reached  a  satisfactory  country;  then  re 
turning  to  Wales  for  recruits  and  sailing  back  to  where 
he  had  landed  on  the  first  voyage.  What  is  said  by  Hak 
luit  about  the  West  Indies  being  the  Madoc  land  and 
by  Powell  about  Florida  and  Mexico  being  the  place, 
was  simply  their  opinion  after  the  discovery  of  Colum 
bus.  We  now  know  that  if  Madoc  had  continued  to  sail 
westward  and  did  not  come  in  contact  with  an  interven 
ing  island  he  would  have  been. bound  to  reach  some  part 
of  America,  but  neither  Madoc  nor  his  contemporaries 
knew  this,  from  the  fact  that  America  was  then  unknown. 
These  two  extracts,  short  and  wanting  in  detail  as  they 
are,  form  the  historic  basis  upon  which  the  whole 
fabric  of  the  tale  of  the  Welsh  discovery  in  the  Twelfth 


28          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

century  rests.  Corroborative  evidence  had  to  come  from 
America.  But  for  this  American  evidence  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  the  Madoc  tradition  would  ever  have 
gotten  beyond  a  limited  circle  in  the  mountains  of  Wales. 
Giraldus,  a  Welsh  author  who  wrote  at  the  time  of  the 
Madoc  expedition,  does  not  mention  it,  and  but  for  the 
rolls  of  the  Welsh  abbeys  it  is  possible  that  the  record 
of  the  event  would  have  perished  at  that  time.  The 
American  authorities  have  given  it  color  and  shape  and 
strength,  and  I  now  propose  to  present  such  of  them 
as  I  have  been  able  to  collect.  As  far  as  possible  they 
will  be  given  in  their  order  of  time,  and  extracts  made 
from  them  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  may  not  have 
access  to  the  originals. 

VIII.    THE  MADOC  TRADITION  IN  AMERICA 

Captain  John  Smith,  the  first  historian  of  Virginia, 
is  entitled  to  whatever  honor  may  belong  to  the  first 
record  of  the  Madoc  tradition  in  America.  At  the  be 
ginning  of  an  enumeration  of  the  discoveries  of  Amer 
ica  in  his  history,  after  simply  naming  the  stories  of  Ar 
thur,  Malgo,  Brandon,  etc.,  as  something  he  knew  nothing 
about  and  doubtless  cared  less,  he  gives  the  Madoc  tra 
dition  from  the  Welsh  Chronicles  as  the  only  discovery 
before  that  of  Columbus.  It  will  be  found  at  the  begin- 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         29 

ning  of  his  enumeration,  in  his  "Generall  Historic  of 
Virginia,  New  England,  and  the  Summer  Isles,"  pub 
lished  at  London  in  1624,  page  i.  It  is  as  follows: 

"The  Chronicles  of  Wales  report,  that  Madock,  fonne 
to  Owen  Quineth,  Prince  of  Wales,  feeing  his  two  breth 
ren  at  debate  who  fhould  inherit  prepared  certaine  Ships, 
with  men  and  munition;  and  left  his  Country  to  feeke 
adventures  by  Sea;  leaving  Ireland  north  he  fayled  weft 
till  he  came  to  a  land  unknowne.  Returning  home  and 
relating  what  pleafant  and  fruitful  countries  he  had  feen 
without  inhabitants  and  for  what  barren  ground  his  breth 
ren  and  kindred  did  murther  one  another,  he  provided  a 
number  of  Ships,  and  got  with  him  fuch  men  and  women 
as  were  defirous  to  live  in  quietneffe  that  arrived  with 
him  in  this  new  land  in  the  yeare  1170;  Left  many  of 
his  people  there  and  returned  for  more.  But  where  this 
place  was  no  Hiftory  can  fhow. " 

The  best  American  evidence  corroborative  of  this 
tradition,  however,  begins  with  a  statement  made  by 
the  Reverend  Morgan  Jones  in  1685.  Parson  Jones  was 
a  resident  of  Virginia  in  1660,  and  was  sent  by  Governor 
Berkeley  as  chaplain  of  an  expedition  to  South  Carolina. 
Afterward,  while  residing  in  New  York,  he  made  the 
following  written  statement  and  delivered  it  to  Doc 
tor  Thomas  Llwyd  of  Pennsylvania,  from  whom,  after 


30          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

passing  through  the  hands  of  several  other  respectable 
persons,  it  reached  the  Reverend  Theophilus  Evans, 
who  had  it  published  in  the  "Gentleman's  Magazine," 
in  London,  in  1740,  page  103.  Parson  Jones'  statement 
is  as  follows: 

"  These  presents  may  certify  all  persons  whatever, 
that  in  the  year  1660  being  an  inhabitant  of  Virginia, 
and  Chaplain  to  Major  General  Bennet  of  Mansoman 
county,  the  said  Major  Bennet  and  Sir  William  Berk 
ley  sent  two  ships  to  Port  Royal,  now  called  South  Car 
olina,  which  is  sixty  leagues  to  the  southward  of  Cape 
Fair,  and  I  was  sent  therewith  to  be  their  minister.  Upon 
the  8th  of  April  we  set  out  from  Virginia,  and  arrived 
at  the  Harbour's  Mouth  of  Port  Royal  the  ipth  of  the 
same  month,  where  we  waited  for  the  rest  of  the  Fleet 
that  was  to  sail  from  Barbadoes  and  Bermuda  with  one 
Mr.  West,  who  was  to  be  Deputy  Governor  of  the  said 
Place.  As  soon  as  the  Fleet  came  in,  the  smallest  ves 
sels  that  were  with  us  sailed  up  the  river  to  a  place  called 
the  Oyster  Point.  There  I  continued  about  8  months, 
all  which  time  being  most  starved  for  want  of  provi 
sions,  I  and  five  more  travelled  through  the  Wilderness, 
till  we  came  to  the  Tuscorara  Country.  There  the  Tus- 
corara  Indians  took  us  prisoners,  because  we  told  them 
we  were  bound  for  Roanoke.  That  night  they  carried 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans          31 

us  to  their  town,  and  shut  us  up  close  to  our  no  small 
dread.  The  next  day  they  entered  into  a  consultation 
about  us,  which  after  it  was  over  their  interpreter  told 
us  that  we  must  prepare  ourselves  to  die  next  morning. 
Thereupon  being  very  much  dejected  and  speaking  to 
this  effect  in  the  British  tongue  '  Have  I  escaped  so  many 
dangers  and  must  I  now  be  knocked  on  the  head  like 
a  Dog, '  then  presently  an  Indian  came  to  me,  which 
afterwards  appeared  to  be  a  War  Captain  belonging  to 
the  Sachem  of  the  Doegs  (whose  original  I  find  needs 
be  from  the  Old  Britons)  and  took  me  up  by  the  middle, 
and  told  me  in  the  British  tongue  I  should  not  die,  and 
thereupon  went  to  the  Emperor  of  Tuscorara  and  agreed 
for  my  ransom,  and  the  men  that  were  with  me.  They 
then  welcomed  us  to  their  town,  and  entertained  us  very 
civilly  and  cordially  four  months,  during  which  time  I 
had  the  opportunity  of  conversing  with  them  familiarly 
in  the  British  language,  and  did  preach  to  them  three 
times  a  week  in  the  same  language,  and  they  would  confer 
with  me  about  anything  that  was  difficult  therein;  and 
at  our  departure  they  abundantly  supplied  us  with  what 
ever  was  necessary  to  our  support  and  well-doing.  They 
are  settled  upon  Pontiago  River,  not  far  from  Cape  Atros. 
This  is  a  brief  recital  of  my  travels,  among  the  Doeg 
Indians,  Morgan  Jones,  the  son  of  John  Jones,  of  Basaleg, 


32          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

near  Newport,  in  the  county  of  Monmouth,  I  am  ready 
to    conduct    any  Welshmen,    or   others    to    the    country. 

New  York,  March  loth,  1685-6." 
Geography  was  not  as  well  understood  at  the  date 
of  this  statement  by  Parson  Jones  as  it  is  at  the  pres 
ent,  and  as  it  was  published  fifty-five  years  after  it  was 
written,  and  probably  without  proof-sheets  being  seen  by 
the  author,  it  was  to  be  expected  that  it  would  contain 
errors,  especially  in  the  names  of  persons  and  places. 
He  doubtless  meant  for  Mansoman  the  county  of  Nanse- 
mond,  in  southeast  Virginia;  for  Cape  Fair,  Cape  Fear; 
for  Pontiago  River,  Pamlico  River;  and  for  Cape  Atros, 
Cape  Hatteras.  The  important  word,  however,  in  the 
statement  is  Doeg,  the  name  by  which  he  designates  the 
tribe  of  Indians  who  spoke  Welsh.  I  know  of  but  one 
tribe  of  Indians  that  bore  the  name  of  Doeg.  They  were 
located  in  Maryland,  in  what  is  now  Prince  George  Coun 
ty,  and  entered  into  a  treaty  with  Lord  Baltimore  in 
1666.  They  might  easily  enough,  with  the  proclivity  of 
their  race,  have  wandered  from  Maryland  through  Virgin 
ia  to  North  Carolina  or  vice  versa.  If  they  were  origi 
nally  called  Madocs,  after  the  Welsh  prince,  the  length  of 
time  between  the  coming  of  the  Welsh  to  America  and 
the  date  of  the  Baltimore  treaty,  or  the  Jones  narrative, 
would  be  sufficient  to  account  for  the  change  in  name. 


PONT   Y   CYSSYLLTE 


LLANGOLLEN  VILLAGE 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         33 

But  if  this  statement  of  Parson  Jones  be  true,  it  would 
be  difficult  to  account  for  this  tribe  of  Indians  in  North 
Carolina  in  1660,  speaking  the  Welsh  language,  upon 
any  hypothesis  more  reasonable  than  that  of  their  being 
descendants  of  the  Madoc  colony.  Parson  Jones  did  not 
seem  to  know  anything  about  Madoc,  or  at  most 
said  nothing  about  him.  He  does  say,  however,  that  he 
lived  for  four  months  among  Indians  who  called  them 
selves  Doegs;  that  he  conversed  with  them,  and  that  he 
preached  to  them  in  the  Welsh  language,  which  they 
understood,  and  that  they  were  located  on  Pamlico  River 
at  no  great  distance  from  Cape  Hatteras  in  North  Carolina. 
It  is  a  great  pity  that  he  did  not  give  a  description  of 
the  persons  and  habits  of  these  Indians  and  record  their 
traditions,  if  any  they  had,  of  their  origin,  et  cetera.  If 
they  had  only  stated  why  they  were  called  Doegs,  they 
might  have  furnished  a  key  to  unlock  the  mystery  of  their 
origin ;  for  the  taking  of  names  is  an  important  act  among 
Indians,  and  never  occurs  without  a  meaning.  It  has 
been  suggested  that  the  Delawares  were  meant  by  the 
Doegs,  but  this  takes  us  no  nearer  to  Madoc.  Different 
writers  have  thought  that  the  Pawnees  and  the  Padoucas 
and  the  Mandans  were  descended  from  the  Madoc  colony, 
but  none  of  these  Indians  could  ever  give  such  an  account 
of  their  origin  as  to  point  to  any  certain  line  of  descent. 


34          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

In  1770  was  published  in  Philadelphia  a  work  entitled 
''Materials  towards  a  History  of  the  American  Baptists," 
by  Morgan  Edwards.  In  appendix  number  eight  to  this 
work  appears  the  following  letter,  dated  March  i,  1733,  and 
addressed  to  the  British  Missionary  Society  in  London: 
"It  is  not  unknown  to  you  that  Madoc  Gwynedd,  a 
prince  of  Wales,  did  about  500  years  ago,  sail  to  the  west 
ward  with  several  ships  and  a  great  number  of  his  sub 
jects;  and  was  never  heard  of  after.  Some  relics  of  the 
Welsh  tongue  being  found  in  old  and  deserted  settlements 
about  the  Mississippi  make  it  probable  that  he  sailed  up 
that  river.  And  we,  being  moved  with  brotherly  love 
to  our  countrymen  are  meditating  to  go  in  search  of  them, 
but  are  discouraged  by  the  distance  of  the  place  and  un 
certainty  of  the  course  we  should  steer.  If  you  can  give 
us  any  information  and  direction  together  with  some 
help  to  bear  the  expense  we  shall  find  men  adventurous 
enough  to  undertake  the  expedition  having  no  other  end 
in  view  than  to  carry  the  gospel  of  peace  among  our  an 
cient  brethren;  and  believing  it  will  be  to  the  enlarge 
ment  of  the  British  empire  in  America  and  a  proof  of  prior 
right  to  the  whole  continent  should  we  happily  succeed. 
"We  remain,  gentlemen,  your  loving  countrymen, 
John  Davis  Nathaniel  Jenkins 

David  Evans  Benj.  Griffiths 

Rynalt  Howel         Joseph  Eaton." 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans          35 

Now  here  are  half-a-dozen  gentlemen  in  Philadelphia 
who  have  faith  enough  in  the  Madoc  tradition  to  offer 
to  search  for  any  remnant  that  may  remain  of  the  Welsh 
colony,  provided  the  necessary  money  can  be  raised  to 
pay  the  expense  of  the  expedition.  These  gentlemen  make 
no  allusion  to  the  statement  of  Reverend  Morgan  Jones, 
which  they  possibly  had  not  seen,  but  simply  rely  upon 
the  tradition  which  was  prevalent  concerning  Madoc.  If 
a  claim  to  the  country  by  discovery  were  a  part  of  their 
object,  as  they  suggest,  it  would  have  been  difficult, 
even  if  they  had  found  the  Madoc  colony,  to  have 
set  up  a  valid  claim  founded  on  the  right  of  discovery. 
As  the  French  held  the  country  when  this  search 
was  proposed,  it  would  have  been  quite  a  serious 
undertaking  to  have  driven  them  out,  for  Wales  or  any 
other  country. 

Captain  Isaac  Stewart,  an  officer  of  the  Provincial 
Cavalry  of  South  Carolina,  in  1782,  made  the  following 
statement,  which  was  published  in  the  second  volume  of 
the  "American  Museum"  for  July,  1787,  page  92: 

"  I  was  taken  prisoner  about  50  miles  to  the  west 
ward  of  Fort  Pitt,  about  18  years  ago,  by  the  Indians, 
and  was  carried  by  them  to  the  Wabash  with  many  more 
white  men,  who  were  executed  with  circumstances  of 
horrid  barbarity;  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  call  forth 


36          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

the  sympathy  of  what  is  called  the  good  woman  of  the 
town  who  was  permitted  to  redeem  me  from  the  flames, 
by  giving,  as  my  ransom,  a  horse. 

"After  remaining  two  years  in  bondage  amongst  the 
Indians,  a  Spaniard  came  to  the  nation,  having  been 
sent  from  Mexico  on  discoveries.  He  made  application 
to  the  chiefs,  for  redeeming  me  and  another  white  man 
in  the  like  situation,  a  native  of  Wales,  named  John  Da- 
vey,  which  they  complied  with,  and  we  took  our  depart 
ure  in  company  with  the  Spaniard,  and  travelled  to  the 
westward,  crossing  the  Mississippi  near  the  River  Rouge, 
or  Red  River,  up  which  we  travelled  700  miles,  when  we 
came  to  a  nation  of  Indians,  remarkably  white  and  whose 
hair  was  of  a  reddish  color,  at  least  mostly  so;  they  lived 
on  the  banks  of  a  small  river  that  empties  itself  into  Red 
River,  which  is  called  the  River  Post.  In  the  morning 
of  the  day  after  our  arrival  among  these  Indians,  the 
Welshman  informed  me  that  he  was  determined  to  re 
main  with  them,  giving  as  a  reason  that  he  understood 
their  language,  it  being  very  little  different  from  the  Welsh. 
My  curiosity  was  excited  very  much  by  this  informa 
tion,  and  I  went  with  my  companion  to  the  chief  men 
of  the  town,  who  informed  him  (in  a  language  I  had  no 
knowledge  of,  and  which  had  no  affinity  to  that  of  any 
other  Indian  tongue  I  ever  heard)  that  their  forefathers 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         37 

of  this  nation  came  from  a  foreign  country,  and  landed 
on  the  east  side  of  the  Mississippi  describing  particularly 
the  country  now  called,  West  Florida,  and  that  on  the 
Spaniards  taking  possession  of  Mexico,  they  fled  to  their 
then  abode,  and  as  proof  of  the  truth  of  what  he  advanced, 
he  brought  forth  roles  of  parchment  which  were  care 
fully  tied  up  in  otter  skins,  on  which  were  large  char 
acters,  written  with  blue  ink,  the  characters  I  did  not 
understand  and  the  Welshman  being  unacquainted  with 
letters,  even  of  his  own  language,  I  was  not  able  to  know 
the  meaning  of  the  writing.  They  are  a  bold,  hardy 
intrepid  people,  very  warlike,  and  the  women  beautiful 
when  compared  with  other  Indians." 

The  Spaniards  had  recently  come  into  possession  of 
the  country  west  of  the  Mississippi  by  cession  from  France, 
and  it  was  natural  enough  that  they  should  have  explor 
ers  in  the  field  examining  it.  Captain  Stewart  and  his 
Spanish  companion  went  a  long  way  south  before  cross 
ing  the  Mississippi  into  this  territory,  but  that  seeming 
wandering  may  have  been  a  part  of  their  explorations. 
They  crossed  the  Mississippi  at  Red  River  and  went  up 
this  stream  toward  its  source  in  Northwestern  Texas. 
Here  they  found  Indians  who  were  white,  and  talked 
Welsh.  This  was  in  the  region  of  the  Padoucah  tribe 
of  reputed  White  Indians,  on  the  Rio  Del  Norte,  who, 


38  Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

according  to  General  Bowles,  an  intelligent  Irishman  liv 
ing  among  the  Cherokees,  spoke  Welsh.  Captain  Stewart's 
geography,  like  that  of  all  early  explorers,  was  not 
very  accurate,  but  it  could  hardly  have  been  otherwise 
when  there  was  no  one  to  teach  geography  and  make 
reliable  maps,  as  in  later  times. 

In  1796,  Reverend  John  Williams,  LL.  D.,  published  in 
London  a  book  entitled  "An  Inquiry  into  the  Truth  of 
the  Tradition  concerning  the  Discovery  of  America  by 
Madog. "  This  book  abounds  in  valuable  information  on 
the  subject  of  the  Madoc  colony  in  America,  and  from  it 
the  following  extracts,  beginning  at  page  41,  are  taken: 

"  Mr.  Chas.  Beatty,  a  Missionary  from  New  York, 
accompanied  by  a  Mr.  Duffield,  visited  some  inland  parts 
of  North  America  in  the  year  1766.  If  I  rightly  under 
stood  his  journal,  he  travelled  about  400,  or  500  miles 
to  the  southeast  of  New  York.  During  his  Tour  he  met 
with  several  persons  who  had  been  among  the  Indians 
from  their  youth,  or  who  had  been  taken  captives  by 
them,  and  lived  with  them  several  years.  Among  others 
one  Benjamin  Sutton,  who  had  visited  different  Nations, 
and  had  lived  many  years  with  them.  His  account,  in 
Mr.  Beatty 's  words,  was  as  follows: 

"  He  (Benjamin  Sutton)  informed  us,  when  he  was 
with  the  Chactaw  Nation,  or  tribe  of  Indians  at  the  Mis- 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         39 

sissippi,  he  went  to  an  Indian  town  a  very  considerable 
distance  from  New  Orleans,  whose  inhabitants  were  of 
a  different  complexion;  not  so  tawny  as  those  of  other 
Indians,  and  who  spoke  Welsh.  He  said  he  saw  a  book 
among  them,  which  he  supposed  was  a  Welsh  Bible,  which 
they  kept  carefully  wrapped  up  in  a  skin,  but  they  could 
not  read  it;  and  that  he  heard  some  of  the  Indians  af 
terwards  in  the  lower  Shawanaugh  Town  speak  Welsh 
with  one  Lewis  a  Welshman,  captive  there.  This  Welsh 
tribe  now  live  on  the  West  side  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
a  great  way  above  New  Orleans. 

"  Levi  Hicks,  as  being  among  the  Indians  from  his 
youth,  told  us  he  had  been,  when  attending  an  Embassy 
in  a  town  of  Indians,  on  the  west  side  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  who  talked  Welsh  (as  he  was  told,  for  he  did  not 
understand  them)  and  our  interpreter  Joseph  saw  some 
Indians  whom  he  supposed  to  be  of  the  same  Tribe,  who 
talked  Welsh,  for  he  told  us  some  of  the  words  they  said, 
which  he  knew  to  be  Welsh,  as  he  had  been  acquainted 
with  some  Welsh  people." 

Following  the  preceding  extract  in  the  book  of  Mr. 
Williams  is  a  lengthy  account  of  a  minister  of  the  gos 
pel  who  was  captured  by  the  Indians  in  Virginia  and 
condemned  to  death.  Just  before  he  was  to  be  execu 
ted — whether  by  fire  or  some  other  torture  is  not  stated 


40          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

—he  fell  upon  his  knees  and  prayed  aloud  in  the  Welsh 
language.  His  executioners  understood  his  words,  had 
his  death  sentence  set  aside,  and  restored  him  to  liberty. 
No  name  or  date  is  given,  but  the  facts  stated  are  so  near 
ly  identical  with  those  in  the  narrative  of  the  Reverend 
Morgan  Jones  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  about  his  be 
ing  the  minister  referred  to.  The  narrative  of  Mr.  Jones 
has  been  previously  given  in  this  article,  and  need  not 
be  repeated  here.  These  two  accounts  of  the  same  event, 
related  so  distantly  apart  in  both  space  and  time,  indi 
cate  how  widely  spread  the  Madoc  tradition  was  in  Amer 
ica.  It  does  not  appear  that  Mr.  Sutton  had  ever  seen 
the  Jones  narrative,  and  yet  more  than  one  hundred 
years  afterward,  and  more  than  one  thousand  miles  dis 
tant  in  the  wild  West,  he  substantially  repeated  from 
tradition  facts  set  forth  in  the  Jones  narrative.  Such 
coincident  narratives  indicate  that  this  tradition  was 
known  all  over  both  savage  and  civilized  America. 

"  Sutton  further  informed  us  that  in  the  Delaware 
tribe  of  Indians  he  observed  their  women  to  follow  ex 
actly  the  custom  of  the  Jewish  women,  in  keeping  sep 
arate  from  the  rest  seven  days  at  certain  times  prescribed 
in  the  Mosaic  law;  that  from  some  old  men  among  them 
he  had  heard  the  following  Traditions:  That  of  old  time 
their  people  were  divided  by  a  river,  and  one  part  tar- 


PASS  OF  LLANBERIS 


RHAIADYR-Y-WENOL 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         41 

rying  behind,  that  they  knew  not  for  certainty  how  they 
first  came  to  this  continent,  but  account  for  their  coming 
into  these  parts,  near  where  they  are  now  settled.  That 
a  King  of  their  nation  where  they  formerly  lived  far  to 
the  west,  left  his  Kingdom  to  his  two  sons  that  the  one 
son  making  war  upon  the  other,  the  latter  thereupon  de 
termined  to  depart  and  seek  some  new  Habitation;  that 
accordingly  he  set  out  accompanied  by  a  number  of  his 
people,  and  that  after  wandering  to  and  fro  for  the  space 
of  40  years,  they  at  length  came  to  Delaware  River,  where 
they  settled  370  years  ago.  The  way,  he  says,  they  keep 
account  of  this,  is  by  putting  on  a  black  bead  of  Wam 
pum  every  year  since  on  a  Belt  they  have  for  that  pur 
pose. " 

This  tradition  is  evidently  a  distorted  and  confused 
version  of  the  original  account  of  the  Madoc  narrative 
as  related  Hakluit's  Voyages  and  Powell's  Caradoc.  After 
passing  through  Indian  tribes  for  centuries  we  could 
hardly  expect  it  to  show  less  changes  than  it  exhibits, 
and  yet  through  all  the  changes  the  original  is  plainly 
seen.  Madoc  is  the  dissatisfied  son  who  wanders  for 
forty  years,  and  thus  confounds  the  narrative  with  the 
Israelites  in  the  journey  to  Palestine  through  the  Red 
Sea  and  the  Wilderness.  If  there  were  truth  in  this 
Indian  version  of  the  tradition,  we  should  be  much 


42          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

obliged  for  being  informed  that  Madoc  and  his  colony 
landed  on  the  Delaware  River  three  hundred  and  seventy 
years  ago. 

In  this  learned  work  of  Mr.  Williams,  the  testimony 
of  numerous  persons  who  had  been  among  the  Welsh 
Indians  in  America  is  given  in  the  shape  of  letters  and 
statements.  It  also  contains  a  vast  number  of  authori 
ties  on  the  subject  which  were  accessible  to  the  author 
at  the  time  it  was  published.  It  is  in  fact  an  exhaustive 
work  on  the  subject. 

Following  this  work  of  Mr.  Williams  was  a  small  vol 
ume  entitled  "The  Welsh  Indians,  or  a  Collection  of  Pa 
pers  respecting  Prince  Madoc,  by  George  Burder,  Lon 
don,  1797."  It  contains  much  of  the  same  matter  as 
the  work  of  Mr.  Williams,  but  has  some  articles  not 
in  the  Williams  work.  It  can  not  be  said,  however, 
to  add  many  material  facts  to  the  story  as  already 
told,  but  only  adds  cumulative  evidence.  The  following 
article  is  copied  from  Mr.  Burder 's  work,  page  7, 
because  it  gives  something  of  the  history  of  the  Madoc 
family : 

"Owain,  Prince  of  Gwynez,  who  died  in  the  year  1169 
had  nineteen  children,  the  names  of  the  Sons  were  Rho- 
dri,  Cynoric,  Riryd,  Meredyz,  Edwal,  Cynan,  Rien,  Mael- 
gon,  Lywelyn,  lorwerth,  Davyz,  Cadwallon,  Hywell,  Ca- 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         43 

dell,  Madoc,  Einion,  and  Phylip;  of  thefe  Rhodri,  Hywell, 
Davyz  and  Madoc  were  the  most  diftinguifhed.  Hywell 
was  a  fine  poet  as  appears  by  his  compofition;  of  which 
eight  are  preferred.  His  mother  was  a  native  of  Ireland, 
and  though  not  born  in  wedlock,  he  was  the  firft  who 
afpired  to  the  crown  after  the  death  of  Owain,  which 
event  no  sooner  took  place  but  his  brother  Davyz  be 
came  his  competitor,  under  the  fanction  of  a  legitimate 
birth.  The  confequence  was,  the  country  became  em 
broiled  in  a  civil  war. 

"  Influenced  by  difgust  at  the  unnatural  diffenfions 
among  his  brothers  Madoc,  who  is  reprefented  of  a  very 
mild  difpofition,  refolved  upon  the  matchlef  enterprise  of 
exploring  the  ocean  westward,  in  fearch  of  more  tran 
quil  fcenes.  The  event  was,  according  to  various  old  doc 
uments,  the  dif covering  of  a  new  world,  from  which  he 
effected  his  return  to  inform  his  country  of  his  good  for 
tune.  The  confequence  of  which  was  the  fitting  out  of 
a  fecond  expedition,  and  Madoc  with  his  brother  Riryd, 
Lord  of  Clocran,  in  Ireland,  prevailed  upon  fo  many  to 
accompany  them  as  to  fill  feven  fhips  and  failing  from 
the  Ifle  of  Lundy,  they  took  an  eternal  leave  of  Wales. 
There  is  a  large  book  of  pedigrees  ftill  extant,  written 
by  Jeuan  Brecva  who  flourished  in  the  age  preceding  the 
time  of  Columbus.  Madoc  and  Riryd  found  land  far  in 


44          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

the  fea  of  the  weft  and  there  they  fettled.  Lywarc,  the 
fon  of  Lywelyn,  feems  to  have  compofed  two  of  his  poems 
in  the  time  between  the  firft  and  the  fecond  of  the  two 
voyages  of  Madoc.  One  of  thefe  pieces  miift  be  confid- 
ered  of  great  importance  and  curiofity;  it  is  an  invoca 
tion,  as  if  he  were  undergoing  the  fiery  ordeal,  to  exhon- 
erate  himfelf  from  having  any  knowledge  of  the  fate  of 
Madoc;  the  fecond,  being  a  panegyric  upon  Rhodri  an 
other  brother,  has  a  remarkable  allufion  to  the  fame 
event.  It  is  thus  translated: 

'Two  princes,  of  ftrong  paffion,  broke  off  in  wrath, 
beloved  by  the  multitude  of  the  earth.  One  on  land,  in 
Arvon,  allaying  of  ambition,  and  another,  a  placid  one, 
on  the  bofom  of  the  vaft  ocean,  in  great  and  immeafur- 
able  trouble  prowling  after  a  profeffion  easy  to  be  guard 
ed,  eftranged  from  all  for  a  country." 

In  1857,  George  Catlin  published  in  Philadelphia  two 
volumes  entitled  "  Letters  and  Notes  on  the  Manners  of 
the  North  American  Indians. ' '  Mr.  Catlin  lived  for  some 
time  among  the  Mandan  Indians  and  studied  their  his 
tory  and  peculiarities.  In  the  appendix  to  his  work, 
volume  2,  page  777,  he  expressed  the  opinion  that  the 
Mandans  were  descendants  of  the  Welsh  colony  estab 
lished  in  America  by  Prince  Madoc  in  the  Twelfth  cen 
tury.  In  support  of  the  theory  he  described  some  of 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         45 

their  peculiarities,  and  gave  a  list  of  words  which  resem 
bled  each  other  and  had  a  similar  meaning  both  in  the 
Mandan  and  Welsh.  He  related  also  the  destruction  of 
the  entire  tribe  by  the  smallpox,  introduced  among  them 
by  British  traders,  so  that  if  this  Welsh  colony,  unlike 
other  early  discoverers  of  America,  helped  to  populate 
the  country,  they  also  perished  by  one  of  the  epidemics 
of  the  new  land.  The  country,  however,  was  already  in 
habited  and  in  no  need  of  any  immigrants  from  a  for 
eign  land  to  give  it  population  when  the  Welsh  colony 
appeared.  What  Mr.  Catlin  said  on  the  subject  will  be 
found  in  the  appendix  to  this  monograph. 

In  the  "Popular  History  of  the  United  States,"  by 
Bryant  and  Gay,  published  in  London  in  1876,  a  con 
siderable  portion  of  the  fourth  chapter  of  the  first  volume 
is  devoted  to  the  Madoc  tradition.  Other  articles  from 
books,  magazines,  and  papers  on  this  subject  might  here 
be  added,  but  they  would  contribute  no  important  fact 
to  the  story  as  already  told.  They  would  simply  be  pres 
entations  in  different  forms  of  what  has  already  been 
stated.  What  appears  in  Bryant  and  Gay's  history  will 
be  found  in  the  appendix  to  this  monograph,  as  will  other 
articles  which  would  overload  the  text. 


46          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 


IX.    THE   MADOC   TRADITION   IN  KENTUCKY 

There  is,  however,  in  the  State  of  Kentucky,  consider 
able  matter  relating  to  the  Madoc  tradition  which  will 
not  be  found  elsewhere  and  belongs  to  this  country  alone. 
This  tradition  was  especially  popular  in  Kentucky,  where 
the  Welsh  Indians  were  believed  to  have  dwelt  in  early 
times  and  where  they  were  finally  exterminated  at  the 
Falls  of  the  Ohio  by  the  Red  Indians.  The  Kentucky 
pioneers  were  full  believers  in  this  tradition,  and  in  the 
family  circle,  by  the  warmth  and  light  of  the  huge  log 
fires  of  the  cabins,  the  story  of  Prince  Madoc  was  told 
on  long  winter  nights  to  eager  listeners  who  never  wear 
ied  of  it.  I  now  propose  to  present  not  only  what  ap 
pears  in  the  Kentucky  newspapers,  magazines,  and  books, 
but  also  some  of  the  traditions  which  have  never  before 
been  published. 

John  Filson,  the  author  of  the  first  History  of  Ken 
tucky,  published  at  Wilmington,  Delaware,  in  1784,  was 
a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  where  the  Madoc  tradition  was 
well  known.  He  was  also  the  first  one  in  Kentucky  to 
take  the  tradition  from  the  oral  sphere  in  which  it  cir 
culated  and  dignify  it  with  a  place  in  history.  He  was 
a  believer  in  the  tradition,  and  employed  the  opportuni 
ties  which  he  had  among  the  pioneers  to  talk  about  it 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         47 

and  gather  facts  concerning  it  from  those  who  had  met 
Indians  in  different  places  who  spoke  the  Welsh  or  an 
cient  British  language.  These  Welsh  Indians  sometimes 
came  among  the  Kentucky  pioneers  for  the  purpose  of 
trade,  and  although  Filson  may  never  have  met  any  of 
them  himself,  he  took  care  to  learn  all  he  could  from 
those  who  had  seen  and  talked  with  them.  He  came  to 
Kentucky  early  in  the  pioneer  period,  perhaps  in  1782, 
and  employed  his  time  in  hunting  up  information  for  a 
history  of  "Kentucke,"  as  the  new  country  was  then 
spelled.  He  was  a  very  busy  man  in  collecting  facts, 
and  so  persistent  in  his  work  that  he  was  sometimes  an 
noying  to  the  settlers,  who  were  more  interested  in  loca 
ting  lands,  fighting  Indians,  and  killing  game  than  they 
were  in  historical  matter.  He  was  upon  the  best  of 
terms  with  such  pioneers  as  Daniel  Boone,  Levi  Todd, 
James  Harrod,  Christopher  Greenup,  John  Cowan,  and 
William  Kennedy,  all  of  whom  he  mentions  in  his 
history  and  records  his  obligations  to  them  for  the 
help  they  gave  him  in  compiling  it.  He  also  published 
in  his  history  the  indorsement  of  Daniel  Boone,  Levi 
Todd,  and  James  Harrod,  among  the  most  prominent 
of  the  pioneers,  that  it  was  a  valuable  history,  pre 
senting  a  true  account  of  the  country.  His  oppor 
tunities  were  the  best  to  learn  what  was  known  and 


48          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

believed  about  the  Madoc  tradition,  and  hence  he 
recorded  in  his  history  that  it  was  universally  known 
and  believed. 

When  Filson  had  gotten  well  under  way  with  his 
"History  of  Kentucke"  he  made  a  visit  to  Louisville 
for  the  purpose  of  collecting  information  about  the  Welsh 
Indians,  who  it  was  believed  once  resided  at  the  Falls 
of  the  Ohio.  There  was  then  a  club  in  Louisville  made 
up  of  such  prominent  citizens  as  General  George  Rogers 
Clark,  Colonel  James  F.  Moore,  William  Johnston,  Doc 
tor  Alexander  Skinner,  Captain  James  Patten,  Major 
John  Harrison,  John  Sanders,  and  others.  The  club  some 
times  met  in  the  quarters  of  General  Clark,  in  the  fort 
at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  and  sometimes  at  the  "Keep" 
of  John  Sanders,  near  the  northeast  corner  of  the  present 
Main  and  Third  streets.  The  main  object  of  the  club 
was  to  secure  the  earliest  information  about  the  Indians 
and  the  progress  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  When  on 
the  eve  of  one  of  its  meetings  it  was  learned  that  Cap 
tain  Abraham  Chaplain  was  the  guest  of  General  Clark, 
and  that  John  Filson  the  historian  was  stopping  with 
Captain  James  Patten  for  the  purpose  of  securing  infor 
mation  about  the  Madoc  colony,  it  was  decided  to  invite 
them  to  the  club  meeting,  which  on  this  occasion  was 
to  be  held  in  the  "  Keep ' '  of  John  Sanders.  This  "  Keep, ' ' 


VIEW   NEAR  ABER 


LLYN   GWYNANT 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         49 

as  it  was  called,  was  a  large  flatboat  which  had  been  con 
verted  by  Sanders  into  a  warehouse,  in  which  he  received 
the  peltry  of  the  country  and  gave  receipts  therefor, 
which  were  to  be  paid  when  the  articles  were  sold.  These 
receipts  passed  by  delivery  and  circulated  as  money. 
They  were  therefore  popular  in  the  country,  and  the 
warehouse  of  Sanders,  which  he  called  his  "Keep,"  was 
a  kind  of  bank  which  was  very  useful. 

When  the  members  of  the  club  and  their  guests  had 
assembled  and  the  news  pertaining  to  the  war  and  the 
Indians  had  been  received  and  discussed,  it  was  resolved 
that  each  person  present,  who  might  feel  so  inclined, 
should  have  the  opportunity  to  state  what  he  knew  con 
cerning  the  Madoc  tradition,  for  the  benefit  of  the  his 
torian  who  was  their  guest.  There  was  in  the  statements 
made  at  this  meeting,  as  in  previous  narratives  made 
by  others,  some  little  confusion  on  account  of  the  use  of 
the  names  White  Indians  and  Welsh  Indians.  They  prob 
ably  both  meant  the  same  thing  in  the  use  made  of  them 
by  the  early  settlers  of  the  country.  From  James  Har 
rison,  a  son  of  Major  John  Harrison,  one  of  the  speakers, 
the  following  account  of  the  proceeding  was  obtained: 

General  Clark  spoke  first,  and  confined  himself  to 
what  he  had  learned  from  a  chief  of  the  Kaskaskia  In 
dians  concerning  a  large  and  curiously  shaped  earthwork 


50          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

on  the  Kaskaskia  River,  which  the  chief,  who  was  of 
lighter  complexion  than  most  Indians,  said  was  the  house 
of  his  ancestors.  Colonel  Moore  spoke  next,  and  related 
what  he  had  learned  from  an  old  Indian  about  a  long 
war  of  extermination  between  the  Red  Indians  and  the 
White  Indians.  The  final  battle,  he  said,  between  them 
was  fought  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  where  nearly  the 
whole  of  the  White  Indians  were  driven  upon  an  island 
and  slaughtered.  General  Clark,  on  hearing  this  state 
ment  by  Colonel  Moore,  confirmed  it  by  stating  that  he 
had  heard  the  same  thing  from  Tobacco,  a  chief  of  the 
Piankeshaws.  Major  Harrison  next  spoke,  and  told  about 
an  extensive  graveyard  on  the  north  side  of  the  Ohio, 
opposite  the  Falls,  where  thousands  of  human  bones  were 
buried  in  such  confusion  as  to  indicate  that  the  dead 
were  left  there  after  a  battle,  and  that  the  silt  from  inun 
dations  of  the  Ohio  had  covered  them  as  the  battle  had 
left  them.  Sanders  spoke  next  and  said  that  in  his  inter 
course  with  different  tribes  of  Indians  he  had  met  sev 
eral  of  light  complexion,  gray  eyes,  and  sandy  hair,  but 
had  never  talked  with  them  in  the  Welsh  language,  if 
they  spoke  it,  because  he  did  not  understand  it  himself. 
The  last  White  Indian  he  ever  saw  was  in  a  hunt  on  the 
Wabash  River.  A  White  Indian  had  joined  a  party  of 
Red  Indians,  as  Sanders  had,  for  a  hunt.  While  sep- 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans          5 T 

arated  from  the  rest  of  the  party  the  White  Indian  had 
come  upon  a  panther  and  wounded  it.  The  infuriated 
animal  turned  upon  him  and  literally  tore  him  to  pieces 
before  any  assistance  could  reach  him.  Doctor  Skinner 
came  next,  and  called  attention  to  the  large  mound  at 
the  northeast  corner  of  Main  and  Fifth  streets  in  Lou 
isville,  and  the  larger  one  on  the  northwest  corner  of 
Sixth  and  Walnut  streets.  He  said  that  the  Red  In 
dians  never  made  mounds  of  this  kind,  and  if  they  were 
artificial,  as  he  believed  they  were,  they  might  have  been 
erected  by  the  Welsh  or  White  Indians  for  some  purpose 
unknown  to  the  people  of  this  age.  He  had  heard  that 
there  were  Welsh  Indians  in  this  country  long  ago,  but 
he  had  never  seen  one. 

The  guests  were  then  called  upon  for  any  remarks 
they  wished  to  make  upon  the  subject.  Captain  Chap 
lain  said  he  was  familiar  with  most  of  the  traditions  that 
had  been  related  by  the  speakers  before  him  and  could 
testify  as  to  their  popularity,  but  as  he  was  not  in  the 
habit  of  speaking  he  hoped  he  would  be  allowed  to  re 
main  a  listener.  He  was  excused  and  Filson  was  the 
last  to  speak.  His  speech  was  longer  than  all  the  others 
put  together.  He  began  with  the  Madoc  tradition,  at 
the  death  of  the  king  of  North  Wales,  and  gave  details 
of  the  civil  war  between  the  sons  of  the  king  for  the  sue- 


52  Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

cession;  of  the  determination  of  Madoc,  one  of  the  sons, 
to  get  out  of  the  country  and  escape  the  horrors  of  a  civil 
war,  and  of  his  securing  and  preparing  ships  to  take 
him  and  his  friends  to  some  foreign  land.  He  went  so 
much  into  detail  and  consumed  so  much  time  that  he 
never  got  his  emigrants  beyond  the  shores  of  Wales,  where 
he  had  them  in  ships  and  about  to  sail,  when  he  discov 
ered  that  his  hearers  were  paying  no  attention,  and  all 
of  them  except  Doctor  Skinner  seemed  to  be  asleep.  He 
sat  down  and  spoke  of  his  mortification  to  Doctor  Skin 
ner,  who  consoled  him  with  the  remark  that  his  hearers 
might  not  be  asleep,  but  spellbound  by  his  eloquence. 

Filson,  in  his  "History  of  Kentucke, "  gave  a  lengthy 
and  kindly  account  of  the  Indians,  but  they  were  not 
kind  to  him  in  turn.  While  he  was  going  through  the 
woods  from  the  Miami  River  to  where  Cincinnati  now 
stands,  to  establish  a  city  by  the  name  of  Losantiville, 
he  disappeared  and  was  never  heard  of  more.  None  of 
his  remains  were  ever  found,  and  he  was  supposed  to 
have  been  murdered  by  the  Indians.  In  his  account  of 
the  Indians  in  his  "History  of  Kentucke,"  original  edi 
tion  of  1784,  the  following  concerning  the  Madoc  tradition 
appears  on  pages  95  and  96: 

"In  the  year  1170  Madoc,  son  of  Owen  Gwynedd, 
prince  of  Wales,  dissatisfied  with  the  situation  of  affairs 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         53 

at  home  left  his  country,  as  related  by  the  Welsh  his 
torians,  in  quest  of  new  settlements  and  leaving  Ireland 
to  the  north  proceeded  west  till  he  discovered  a  fertile 
country  where  leaving  a  colony  he  returned  and  persua 
ding  many  of  his  countrymen  to  join  him  put  to  sea  with 
10  ships  and  was  never  more  heard  of. 

"This  account  has  several  times  drawn  the  attention 
of  the  world  but  as  no  vestiges  of  them  had  then  been 
found  it  was  concluded,  perhaps  too  rashly  to  be 
a  fable  or  at  least  that  no  remains  of  the  colony 
existed.  Of  late  years,  however,  the  western  settlers 
have  received  frequent  accounts  of  a  nation  inhabiting 
at  a  great  distance  up  the  Missouri,  in  manners  and 
appearance  resembling  the  other  Indians  but  speaking 
Welsh  and  retaining  some  ceremonies  of  the  Christian 
worship  and  at  length  this  is  universally  believed  to 
be  a  fact. 

"Captain  Abraham  Chaplain  of  Kentucky,  a  gentleman 
whose  veracity  may  be  entirely  depended  upon,  assured 
the  author  that  in  the  late  war,  being  with  his  company 
in  garrison  at  Kaskasky,  some  Indians  came  there  and 
speaking  in  the  Welsh  dialect  were  perfectly  understood 
and  conversed  with  by  two  Welshmen  in  his  company 
and  that  they  informed  them  of  the  situation  of  their 
nation  as  mentioned  above." 


54          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

In  the  "Public  Advertiser,"  a  newspaper  published  in 
Louisville,  Kentucky,  by  Shadrach  Penn,  early  in  the 
last  century,  appeared  an  interview  between  Lieutenant 
Joseph  Roberts  and  an  Indian  in  Washington  City.  Lieu 
tenant  Joseph  Roberts  was  a  Welshman  born  and  reared 
in  North  Wales,  and  capable  of  judging  of  the  kind  of 
Welsh  the  Indian  spoke.  The  following  is  his  account  of 
this  interview  as  it  appeared  in  the  "Public  Advertiser," 
May  15,  1819: 

"  In  the  year  1801  being  at  the  City  of  Washington 
in  America,  I  happened  to  be  at  a  hotel,  smoking  a  cigar 
according  to  the  custom  of  the  country  and  there  was 
a  young  lad,  a  native  of  Wales,  a  waitor  in  the  house 
and  because  he  had  displeased  me  by  bringing  me  a  glass 
of  brandy  and  water,  warm  instead  of  cold,  I  said  to  him 
jocosely  in  Welsh,  '  I  '11  give  thee  a  good  beating. ' 

;<  There  happened  to  be  at  the  time  in  the  room  one 
of  the  secondary  Indian  chiefs  who  on  my  pronouncing 
those  words,  rose  in  a  great  hurry  stretching  forth  his 
hand,  at  the  same  time  asking  me  in  the  ancient  British 
tongue — '  Is  that  thy  language  ? '  I  answered  him  in 
the  affirmative  shaking  hands  at  the  same  time,  and  the 
chief  said  that  was  likewise  his  language  and  the  language 
of  his  father  and  mother  and  of  his  nation.  I  said  to 
him  so  it  is  the  language  of  my  father  and  mother  and 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans          55 

also  my  country.  Upon  this  the  Indian  began  to  inquire 
from  whence  I  came  and  I  replied  from  Wales,  but  he 
had  never  heard  of  such  a  place.  I  explained  that  Wales 
was  a  principality  in  the  kingdom  called  England.  He 
had  heard  of  England  and  of  the  English,  but  never  of 
such  a  place  as  Wales. 

"  I  asked  him  if  there  were  any  traditions  amongst 
them  whence  their  ancestors  had  come?  He  said  there 
were  and  that  they  had  come  from  a  far  distant  country, 
very  far  in  the  east  and  from  over  the  great  waters.  I 
conversed  with  him  in  Welsh  and  English;  he  knew  bet 
ter  Welsh  than  I  did  and  I  asked  him  how  they  had  come 
to  retain  their  language  so  well  from  mixing  with  other 
Indians.  He  answered  that  they  had  a  law  or  estab 
lished  custom  in  their  nation  forbidding  any  to  teach 
their  children  another  language  until  they  had  attained 
the  age  of  12  years  and  after  that  they  were  at  liberty 
to  learn  any  language  they  pleased.  I  asked  him  if  he 
would  like  to  go  to  England  and  Wales;  he  replied  that 
he  had  not  the  least  inclination  to  leave  his  native  coun 
try  and  that  he  would  sooner  live  in  a  wigwam  than  in 
a  palace.  He  had  ornamented  his  naked  arms  with  brace 
lets,  on  his  head  were  placed  ostrich  feathers. 

"  I  was  astonished  and  greatly  amazed  when  I  heard 
such  a  man  who  had  painted  his  face  of  yellowish  red 


5 6          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

and  of  such  an  appearance  speaking  the  ancient  British 
language  as  fluently  as  if  he  had  been  born  and  brought 
up  in  the  vicinity  of  Snowden.  His  head  was  shaved 
excepting  around  the  crown  of  his  head  and  there  it  was 
very  long  and  plaited  and  it  was  on  the  crown  of  his  head 
he  had  placed  the  ostrich  feathers  which  I  mentioned 
before  to  ornament  himself. 

"The  situation  of  those  Indians  is  about  800  miles 
southwest  of  Philadelphia,  according  to  his  statement 
and  they  are  called  Asguaws  or  Asguaw  nation. 

"The  chief  courted  my  society  astonishingly,  seeing 
that  we  were  descended  from  the  same  people.  He  used 
to  call  upon  me  almost  every  day  and  take  me  to  the 
woods  to  show  me  the  virtues  of  the  various  herbs  which 
grew  there;  for  neither  he  nor  his  kindred  were  acquaint 
ed  with  compound  medicine. 

JOSEPH    ROBERTS.  ' ' 

This  statement  of  Lieutenant  Roberts  is  one  of  the 
best  of  all  the  contributions  to  the  literature  of  the  Ma- 
doc  colony  of  Welshmen  among  the  North  American  In 
dians.  The  Indian  with  whom  Lieutenant  Roberts  con 
versed  spoke  the  ancient  British  or  Welsh  language  flu 
ently,  gave  a  good  reason  for  this  language  being  so  long 
retained  by  his  people  in  America,  and  indicated  that 
Wales,  a  country  unknown  to  him,  was  the  land  from 


SNOWDON  VILLAGE 


FALL  OF  THE  OGWEN 


Traditions  of  the  Rarliest  Americans         57 

which  his  nation  had  come,  by  speaking  its  ancient  lan 
guage  and  locating  it  far  to  the  east,  beyond  the  great 
waters.  I  can  recall  nothing  said  by  any  other  Welsh- 
speaking  Indian  which  throws  more  light  on  the  Madoc 
colony  or  that  contributed  as  much  in  such  few  words 
to  the  plausibility  of  the  tradition.  If  there  be  no  truth 
in  the  tradition,  then  there  is  an  astonishing  amount  of 
untruth  in  the  numerous  accounts  of  it.  It  is  almost 
impossible  to  believe  that  so  many  witnesses  as  have 
testified  in  this  case  should  have  been  plain  liars  about 
a  matter  in  which  they  seem  to  have  had  no  personal 
interest. 

In  1804  the  Honorable  Harry  Toulmin,  who  was  Sec 
retary  of  State  under  Governor  Garrard,  of  Kentucky, 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  "Palladium,"  a  weekly 
newspaper  published  at  Frankfort,  Kentucky,  in  which 
he  sets  forth  what  had  been  learned  from  one  Maurice 
Griffiths  concerning  the  Welsh  Indians.  Griffiths  was  born 
in  Wales,  and  while  a  mere  lad  emigrated  to  Virginia. 
While  residing  on  the  Roanoke  River  in  Virginia  he  was 
taken  prisoner  by  the  Shawnees,  about  the  year  1764, 
and  conducted  to  their  towns.  After  remaining  with 
these  Indians  some  two  or  three  years  he  joined  a  party 
of  five  young  braves,  to  go  on  a  hunting  and  exploring 
expedition  up  the  Missouri  River.  After  ascending  the 


58          Traditions  of  the  Rarliest  Americans 

Missouri  for  many  days,  amid  great  difficulties,  they 
came  to  a  nation  of  Indians  who  were  white  or  of  a  light 
complexion,  and  spoke  the  Welsh  language.  Mr.  Grif 
fiths  made  his  statement  to  John  Chiles,  a  respectable 
citizen  of  Woodford  County,  who  in  turn  related  it  to 
Mr.  Toulmin,  who  reduced  it  to  writing  and  gave  it  to 
the  "Palladium"  for  publication.  It  appeared  in  the 
"Palladium"  on  the  i2th  of  December,  1804.  Mr.  Grif 
fiths  is  endorsed  by  Mr.  Chiles  as  a  gentleman  of  stand 
ing  and  veracity  and  Mr.  Chiles  is  endorsed  by  Mr.  Toul 
min  as  a  citizen  worthy  of  all  confidence  and  credit.  Mr. 
Toulmin  needs  no  endorsement.  He  was  President  of 
Transylvania  University,  Secretary  of  State,  Judge  of 
the  United  States  District  Court,  and  author  of  an  early 
history  of  Kentucky,  as  well  as  several  valuable  law-books. 
He  was  a  minister  of  the  gospel,  of  the  Unitarian  faith, 
and  stood  high  as  a  Christian  statesman,  judge,  literary 
man  of  broad  culture  and  strict  integrity.  His  letter  to 
the  "Palladium"  is  too  long  for  insertion,  and  the  fol 
lowing  extracts  are  taken  from  it: 

"After  passing  the  mountains  they  entered  a  fine, 
fertile  tract  of  land,  which  having  traveled  through  for 
several  days,  they  accidentally  met  with  three  white  men 
in  the  Indian  dress.  Griffiths  immediately  understood 
their  language,  as  it  was  pure  Welsh,  though  they  occa- 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         59 

sionally  made  use  of  a  few  words  with  which  he  was  not 
acquainted.  However,  as  it  happened  to  be  the  turn 
of  one  of  his  Shawnee  companions  to  act  as  spokesman, 
or  interpreter,  he  preserved  a  profound  silence,  and  never 
gave  them  any  intimation  that  he  understood  the  lan 
guage  of  their  new  companions. 

"After  proceeding  with  them  four  or  five  days'  jour 
ney,  they  came  to  the  village  of  these  white  men,  where 
they  found  that  the  whole  nation  were  of  the  same  color, 
having  all  the  European  complexion.  The  three  men 
took  them  through  their  village  for  about  the  space  of 
fifteen  miles,  when  they  came  to  a  second  council  house, 
at  which  an  assembly  of  the  king  and  chief  men  of  the 
nation  was  immediately  held.  The  council  lasted  three 
days,  and  as  the  strangers  were  not  supposed  to  be  ac 
quainted  with  their  language,  they  were  suffered  to  be 
present  at  their  deliberations.  The  great  question  before 
the  council  was,  what  conduct  should  be  observed  toward 
the  strangers.  From  their  firearms,  their  knives,  and 
their  tomahawks,  it  was  concluded  that  they  were  a  war 
like  people.  It  was  conceived  that  if  they  were  sent 
to  look  out  for  a  country  for  their  nation,  that  if  they 
were  suffered  to  return  they  might  expect  a  body  of  pow 
erful  invaders,  but  that  if  these  six  men  were  put  to  death 
nothing  would  be  known  of  their  country,  and  they  would 


60          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

still  enjoy  their  possessions  in  security.  It  was  finally 
determined  that  they  should  be  put  to  death.  Griffiths 
then  thought  that  it  was  time  for  him  to  speak.  He 
addressed  the  council  in  the  Welsh  language:  he  in 
formed  them  that  they  had  not  been  sent  by  any  nation; 
that  they  were  actuated  merely  by  private  curiosity; 
that  they  had  no  hostile  intentions;  that  it  was  their 
wish  to  trace  the  Missouri  to  its  source,  and  that  they 
would  return  to  their  country  satisfied  with  the  discov 
ery  they  had  made,  without  any  wish  to  disturb  the  re 
pose  of  their  new  acquaintances.  An  instant  astonish 
ment  glowed  in  the  countenances  not  only  of  the  council, 
but  of  his  Shawnee  companions,  who  clearly  saw  that 
he  was  understood  by  the  people  of  the  country.  Full 
confidence  was  at  once  given  to  his  declarations;  the 
king  advanced  and  gave  him  his  hand.  They  abandoned 
the  design  of  putting  him  and  his  companions  to  death, 
and  from  that  moment  treated  them  with  the  utmost 
friendship.  Griffiths  and  the  Shawnees  continued  eight 
months  in  the  nation,  but  were  deterred  from  prosecu 
ting  their  researches  up  the  Missouri  by  the  advice  of  the 
people  of  the  country,  who  informed  them  that  they  had 
gone  twelve  months'  journey  up  the  river,  but  found  it 
as  large  there  as  it  was  in  their  own  country.  As  to  the 
history  of  this  people  he  could  learn  nothing  satisfactory. 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         61 

The  only  account  they  could  give  was  that  their  fore 
fathers  had  come  up  the  river  from  a  very  distant  coun 
try.  They  had  no  books,  no  records,  no  writings.  They 
intermixed  with  no  other  people  by  marriage;  there  was 
not  a  dark-skinned  man  in  the  nation.  Their  numbers 
were  very  considerable.  There  was  a  continued  range  of 
settlements  on  the  river  for  fifty  miles,  and  there  were 
within  this  space  three  large  water  courses  which  fell 
into  the  Missouri,  on  the  banks  of  each  of  which  likewise 
they  were  settled.  He  supposed  there  must  be  fifty 
thousand  men  in  the  nation  capable  of  bearing  arms. 
Their  clothing  was  skins,  well  dressed.  Their  houses 
were  made  of  upright  posts  and  the  bark  of  trees. 
The  only  implements  they  had  to  cut  them  with  were 
stone  tomahawks.  They  had  no  iron;  their  arms  were 
bows  and  arrows.  They  had  some  silver,  which  had 
been  hammered  with  stones  into  coarse  ornaments,  but 
it  did  not  appear  to  be  pure.  They  had  neither  horses, 
cattle,  sheep,  hogs,  nor  any  domestic  or  tame  animals. 
They  lived  by  hunting.  He  said  nothing  about  their 
religion." 

In  1842,  Thomas  S.  Hinde,  an  antiquarian  of  more 
than  local  reputation,  in  answer  to  inquiries  made  by 
John  S.  Williams,  editor  of  the  "American  Pioneer," 
gave  some  valuable  information  touching  the  Madoc 


62          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

tradition.  Mr.  Hinde  spent  many  years  in  investigating 
the  antiquities  of  the  West,  and  was  of  no  little  help  to 
the  Reverend  John  P.  Campbell  in  the  vast  amount  of 
information  he  gathered  upon  this  subject.  He  was  au 
thority  upon  all  questions  touching  the  antiquities  of 
Kentucky  and  the  Western  States.  In  answering  the 
queries  of  Mr.  Williams,  he  wrote  a  letter  which  appeared 
in  the  "Pioneer,"  volume  i,  page  373,  and  from  which 
the  following  extract  is  taken: 

"Mount  Carmel,  111.,  May  30,   1824. 
"Mr.  J.  S.  Williams. 
"Dear  Sir: 

'Your  letter  of  the  lyth,  to  Major  Armstrong, 
was  placed  in  my  hands  some  days  ago.  The  brief  re 
marks  and  hints  given  you  are  correct.  I  have  a  vast 
quantity  of  western  matter,  collected  in  notes  gathered 
from  various  sources,  mostly  from  persons  who  knew  the 
facts.  These  notes  reach  back  to  remote  periods.  It 
is  a  fact  that  the  Welsh  under  Owen  ap  Zuinch,  in  the 
1 2th  century  found  their  way  to  the  Mississippi  and  as 
far  up  the  Ohio  as  the  Falls  of  that  River  at  Louisville 
where  they  were  cut  off  by  the  Indians;  others  ascended 
the  Missouri,  were  either  captured,  or  settled  with  and 
sunk  into  Indian  habits.  Proof  i:  In  1799,  six  sol 
diers'  skeletons  were  dug  up  near  Jeffersonville,  each 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans          63 

skeleton  had  a  breast-plate  of  brass,  cast  with  the  Welsh 
coat-of-arms,  the  Mermaid  and  Harp  with  a  Latin  in 
scription,  in  substance,  "virtuous  deeds  meet  their  just 
reward."  One  of  these  plates  was  left  by  Captain  Jon 
athan  Taylor,  with  the  late  Mr.  Hubbard  Taylor,  of  Clarke 
county,  and  when  called  for  by  me  in  1814  for  the  late 
Dr.  John  P.  Campbell  of  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  who  was  pre 
paring  notes  of  the  antiquities  of  the  west,  by  a  letter 
from  Mr.  Hubbard  Taylor,  Jr.  (a  relative  of  mine),  now 
living,  I  was  informed  that  the  breast  plate  had  been 
taken  to  Virginia  by  a  gentleman  of  that  state,  I  sup 
posed  as  a  matter  of  curiosity.  Proff  2nd.  The  late 
Mr.  Mclntosh,  who  first  settled  near  this  and  had  been 
for  fifty  or  sixty  years  prior  to  his  death,  in  1831  or  2 
a  western  Indian  trader,  was  in  Fort  Kaskaskia,  prior 
to  its  being  taken  by  General  George  Rogers  Clarke  in 
1778  and  heard  as  he  informed  me  himself,  a  Welshman 
and  an  Indian  from  far  up  the  Missouri,  speaking  and 
conversing  in  the  Welsh  language.  It  was  stated  by 
Gilbert  Imlay,  in  his  history  of  the  West,  that  it  was 
Captain  Abraham  Chaplain,  of  Union  county,  Kentucky, 
that  heard  this  conversation  in  Welsh.  Dr.  Campbell 
visiting  Chaplain  found  it  was  not  him,  afterwards  the 
fact  was  stated  by  Mclntosh,  from  whom  I  obtained 
other  facts  as  to  western  matters.  Some  hunter,  many 


64          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

years  ago,  informed  me  of  a  tomb-stone  being  found  in 
the  southern  part  of  Indiana,  with  initials  of  a -name, 
and  1 1 86  engraved  upon  it.  The  Mohawk  Indians  had 
a  tradition  among  them  respecting  the  Welsh,  and  of 
their  having  been  cut  off  by  the  Indians  at  the  Falls  of 
the  Ohio.  The  late  Col.  Joseph  Hamilton  Davis  who 
had  for  many  years  sought  for  information  on  this 
subject,  mentions  this  fact,  and  of  the  Welshman's 
bones  being  found  buried  on  Corn  Island  so  that 
Southey,  the  king's  laureat,  had  some  foundation  for  his 
Welsh  poem." 

This  statement  of  Mr.  Hinde  in  the  above  extract, 
that  six  skeletons  in  the  Welsh  armor  were  exhumed 
near  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio  in  1799,  does  not  strike  the 
reader  as  a  truth  too  evident  for  doubt,  and  reminds 
one  of  the  skeleton  in  armor  found  near  Fall  River  in 
1831.  If  the  Fall  River  skeleton  was  any  proof  of  the 
Norse  colony  on  Fall  River,  in  the  Eleventh  century, 
the  other  six  skeletons  should  be  accepted  as  six  times 
as  much  proof  of  the  Welsh  colony  at  the  Falls  of  the 
Ohio  in  the  Twelfth  century.  But  instead  of  the  six 
skeletons  of  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio  having  the  strongest 
proof,  the  single  skeleton  of  Fall  River  got  the  start 
by  the  help  of  scientists.  The  celebrated  chemist  Ber- 
zelius  analyzed  the  metal  upon  the  Fall  River  skeleton 


TREMADOC  VILLAGE 


RHAIADYR  DU  CATARACT 


Traditions  of  the  Rarliest  Americans         65 

and  found  it  to  be  identical  in  composition  with  the 
metal  known  to  have  been  used  on  Norse  armor  in  the 
Tenth  century.  After  this  analysis,  some  antiquarians 
took  the  liberty  to  conclude  that  the  Fall  River  skeleton 
was  that  of  an  Icelander,  and  claimed  that  this  Iceland 
er  might  have  been  Thorsvald  Erickson,  who  was  killed 
by  the  Skraellings  in  America  about  the  beginning  of 
the  Eleventh  century.  The  Falls  of  the  Ohio  skeletons 
could  not  compete  with  such  assuming  as  this.  A  chem 
ist  should  have  analyzed  them,  and  if  he  had  done  so 
and  found  their  metal  to  be  the  same  as  that  used  by 
the  Welsh  in  the  Twelfth  century  then  it  might  have 
been  in  order,  according  to  the  imagining  in  the  Fall 
River  case,  to  have  pronounced  one  of  the  skeletons 
that  of  Prince  Madoc  and  the  others  those  of  his  five 
principal  men,  if  their  names  could  have  been  found, 
who  were  slain  in  the  great  battle  of  Sand  Island  be 
tween  the  White  and  the  Red  Indians,  in  which  the 
White  Indians  were  the  vanquished  and  the  Red  In 
dians  the  victors. 

X.     DESTRUCTION  OF  WHOLE  TRIBES   OF  AMERICAN  INDIANS 

The  tmth  of  the  Madoc  tradition  has  been  questioned 
by  some,  because  they  claim  that  no  Indian  tribe  in  Amer 
ica  could  be  readily  traced  back  to  a  colony  of  Welsh 


66          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

planted  here  by  Madoc.  This  view  is  in  direct  opposi 
tion  to  the  testimony  of  dozens  of  respectable  witnesses 
who  stated  that  they  had  seen  and  talked  with  Indians 
in  different  localities  who  spoke  the  ancient  British  or 
Welsh  language,  and  indicated  that  their  ancestors  had 
come  from  a  far  distant  land  beyond  the  great  waters. 
But  even  if  there  are  now  no  Welsh  Indians  in  America, 
it  does  not  follow  that  they  were  not  here  at  a  previous 
date.  Whole  tribes  of  Indians  have  been  swept  from 
the  face  of  the  earth  by  war,  pestilence,  and  famine  be 
fore  and  since  the  discovery  of  Columbus. 

Drake,  in  his  "Aboriginal  Races  of  North  America," 
enumerated  nearly  five  hundred  tribes,  a  large  percentage 
of  which  were  extinct  when  the  list  was  made  out 
and  known  only  by  the  name  they  bore  in  former  days. 
The  Iroquois  Indians,  after  getting  possession  of  fire 
arms  in  the  Seventeenth  century,  carried  death  and 
desolation  to  many  neighboring  tribes.  Among  the 
nations  destroyed  by  them  were  the  Eries,  who  gave 
their  name  to  one  of  the  great  lakes  in  this  country. 
War  between  different  tribes  has  been  constant  from 
time  immemorial,  and  some  tribes  have  always  been 
destroying  others.  There  is  no  telling  at  this  date  how 
many  tribes  have  been  utterly  destroyed  in  one  way 
or  another. 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         67 

Smallpox  has  been  a  great  destroyer  of  different  tribes 
of  Indians.  This  disease,  until  it  was  brought  among 
them  by  the  whites,  was  unknown  to  them,  and  they 
were  utterly  incapable  of  controlling  it.  Catlin,  in  his 
"North  American  Indians,"  mentions  the  destroying  of 
the  Mandans  by  smallpox  as  late  as  the  summer  of  1838. 
They  were  confined  within  their  villages  by  the  hostile 
Sioux,  when  a  boat  from  St.  Louis  landed  traders  with 
the  smallpox  among  them.  Not  being  able  to  get  out 
and  scatter  in  the  country  on  account  of  the  besieging 
enemy,  they  died  in  their  quarters,  not  by  individuals, 
but  by  families.  Deaths  were  so  fast  and  so  numerous 
that  no  attempts  were  made  to  bury,  and  the  dead  lay 
in  heaps  to  putrify  in  every  wigwam.  Out  of  the  whole 
nation  only  about  thirty  were  left  alive,  and  these  sought 
self-destruction  by  rushing  upon  the  besieging  enemy 
and  thus  securing  death.  The  whole  nation  perished  in 
a  few  days,  and  passed  forever  from  the  number  of  liv 
ing  tribes. 

It  must  be  stated  also,  however  bitter  may  be 
the  acknowledgment,  that  civilization  has  been  a 
great  destroyer  of  the  Indians.  The  white  man,  with 
civilization  in  one  hand  and  the  whisky  bottle  in 
the  other,  has  caused  the  death  of  more  savages 
than  he  has  civilized.  He  has  also  introduced  among 


68  Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

them  a  loathsome  disease  more  revolting  than  the 
smallpox,  which  contests  the  death  rate  with  the 
other  destroyers. 

It  is  therefore  well  known  to  us  that  whole  tribes 
have  perished  and  left  only  a  name  behind.  That  the 
Madocs  were  one  of  these  extinguished  tribes  we  have 
some  Indian  traditions  in  evidence.  An  old  Indian  told 
Colonel  James  F.  Moore,  of  Kentucky,  that  long  ago  a 
war  of  extermination  was  waged  between  the  Red  In 
dians  and  the  Indians  of  a  lighter  complexion  in  Ken 
tucky,  and  that  the  last  great  battle  between  them  was 
fought  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  where  the  light-colored 
Indians  were  driven  upon  Sand  Island  as  the  last  hope 
of  escape,  and  there  all  were  slaughtered  by  their  pur 
suers.  It  was  the  opinion  of  George  Catlin,  who  spent 
years  among  the  Indians  and  a  good  part  of  the  time 
among  the  Mandans,  that  these  Mandaiis  were  direct 
descendants  from  the  Madoc  colony.  He  reached  this 
conclusion  after  living  with  this  tribe  and  studying  their 
habits  and  learning  their  traditions.  With  this  opinion 
of  Catlin  and  what  was  said  by  the  old  Indian  to  Colonel 
Moore  and  the  statements  of  the  many  witnesses  hereto 
fore  mentioned  in  this  article,  all  of  whom  had  seen  Welsh 
Indians  in  America  and  talked  with  them  in  the  Welsh 
language,  it  would  hardly  seem  just  to  doubt  the  truth 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         69 

of  the  Madoc  tradition  for  no  better  reason  than  that 
there  is  now  no  existing  tribe  of  Welsh  Indians  in  this 
country. 

The  principal  pre-Columbian  discoveries  of  America 
have  now  been  presented,  and  not  one  of  them  found 
America  uninhabited.  Madoc,  the  Welsh  prince,  in  his 
discovery  in  the  Twelfth  century  is  said  in  Llwyd's  trans 
lation  of  Caradoc's  history  of  Wales  to  have  found  the 
continent  without  inhabitants,  but  this  is  a  typographi 
cal  error.  It  was  probably  intended  to  be  stated  that 
the  country  did  not  have  "many"  inhabitants,  instead 
of  "not  any"  inhabitants.  The  text  bears  this  inter 
pretation,  from  the  fact  that  it  states  a  few  lines  above 
that  Madoc  found  the  natives  different  from  what  he  had 
seen  in  Europe.  It  is  possible,  however,  that  Madoc 
may  have  landed  at  some  point  where  there  were  no  in 
habitants  in  sight,  as  there  might  have  been  many  such 
places  in  a  country  as  vast  as  America.  While  a  single 
spot  reached  by  Madoc  may  have  been  void  of  inhabi 
tants,  the  rest  of  the  country  might  have  been  more  or 
less  populated.  He  doubtless,  however,  found  the  new 
country  inhabited,  as  it  is  so  stated  elsewhere  in  the 
text. 


70  Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

XI.     AMERICA  THE   OLDEST   OF  THE   CONTINENTS 

After  the  discovery  by  Columbus  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  Fifteenth  century,  it  was  customary  to  speak  of 
the  eastern  hemisphere  as  the  Old  World,  and  the  west 
ern  as  the  New.     No  one  seemed  to  care  how  long  the 
western  hemisphere  may  have  existed  before  this  discov 
ery.     The  discovery  was  new,  and  therefore  the  country 
was  deemed  new  also.     After  the  discovery  by  Columbus 
made   it   known,    many   alleged    discoverers,    before   un 
heard    of,    came    into    existence    from    different    nations. 
Besides  the  six  discoveries  set  forth  in  this  article,  there 
were  Arabians,  and  Italians,  and  Dutch,  and  Poles,  Japan 
ese,  Jews,  and  others  who  laid  claim  to  this  honor.     None 
of  these,  however,   could  make  out  a  satisfactory  claim 
to  its  discovery,  and  it  may  not  have  been  possible  to 
satisfy  all  doubts  in  any  one  case.     We  knew  that  the 
eastern  hemisphere  existed  and  had  existed  for  thousands 
of   years,   but,    disregarding   the   claims  of   some    of    the 
ancients,    we    did    not    certainly    know    of    the    western 
world   until  it  was  discovered  by  Columbus,  and   as  the 
discovery  was  new,   the   country   discovered  was   called 
new  also. 

We  have  no  certain  way  of  arriving  at  the  age  of  con 
tinents  or  of  determining  the  relative  age  of  any  one  of 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans          7 1 

them,  especially  if  the  age  is  to  be  calculated  in  years. 
Geologists  get  over  the  difficulty  of  estimating  in  years 
by  the  use  of  such  terms  as  eras,  ages,  periods,  epochs, 
etc.  They  will  tell  you  what  geological  age  a  thing  be 
longs  to  by  the  fossils  imbedded  in  it,  but  when  they 
undertake  to  tell  the  year  in  which  anything  existed,  it 
is  by  estimation  only.  Professor  Shaler  estimated  that 
the  North  American  continent  had  existed  between  one 
hundred  and  four  hundred  millions  of  years  since  it  was 
prepared  for  life — since  plants  and  animals  began  to  be 
developed  and  live  upon  it.  To  say  nothing  of  four  hun 
dred  million  years,  one  hundred  millions  present  a 
period  of  which  the  human  mind  can  have  no  rational 
conception.  We  could  form  quite  as  just  a  conception  of 
four  hundred  million  as  of  one  hundred  million.  Both 
terms  suggest  an  incomprehensible  duration  of  time. 
It  probably  makes  no  difference,  therefore,  whether  we 
designate  this  period  as  four  hundred  million  or  one 
hundred  million  or  one  million,  or  even  a  less  number 
of  years.  There  is  no  danger  of  an  error  being  dis 
covered  in  the  addition,  because  there  has  been  no  fixed 
unit  to  start  from  in  estimating  the  existence  of  a 
continent  in  years,  and  possibly  can  be  none. 

If,  however,  it  has  been  between  one  hundred  million 
and  four  hundred  million  of  years  since  animals  and  plants 


72  Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

began  life  in  America,  how  long  did  America  exist  before 
it  was  fit  for  the  life  of  man?  If  the  theory  of  the  nebu 
lous  origin  of  the  earth  be  correct,  quite  as  long  a  period 
may  have  been  necessary  for  the  central  nebulous  mass 
out  of  which  our  solar  system  was  evolved  to  break  up 
into  sections,  and  for  these  sections  to  whirl  around  in 
space  until  they  were  consolidated  into  worlds.  Our 
planet  probably  acted  in  common  with  others  until  cool 
ing  formed  a  crust  sufficiently  strong  for  an  ocean  bed 
over  its  internal  fires,  and  rains  to  descend  from  an  at 
mosphere  which  held  them  in  suspension,  until  they  cov 
ered  the  crust  with  the  waters  of  a  universal  ocean.  Then 
it  began  to  act  for  itself  by  eroding  this  crust  and  con 
tracting  from  further  cooling  until  it  pressed  the  sides 
of  sections  of  the  crust  upon  one  another  and  crushed 
and  pushed  them  upward  in  the  confusion  of  a  crum 
pled,  peaked,  and  valleyed  mountain  range.  Such  were 
the  first  mountains  of  the  earth,  and  they  formed  the 
nucleus  of  the  North  American  continent  along  the  line 
which  separates  the  United  States  from  Canada.  It  is 
known  as  the  Laurentian  range,  and  is  made  up  of  the 
first  metamorphosed  sedimentary  rocks  that  were  formed. 
It  extended  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  on  the  east  along 
the  trend  of  the  St.  Lawrence  River  and  the  lakes  west 
ward  beyond  the  Mississippi  River  nearly  to  the  subse- 


FLINT  VILLAGE 


FLINT  CASTLE 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         73 

quently  erected  Rocky  Mountains,  a  distance  of  some 
two  thousand  miles  in  length  and  three  hundred  miles 
in  width.  This  continent  may  have  been  outlined  be 
neath  the  universal  ocean  long  before  its  upheaval,  but 
this  was  its  first  appearance  above  the  water,  and  it  was 
before  any  one  of  the  other  continents  made  its  appear 
ance  above  the  sea.  As  it  first  appeared,  America  was 
a  mass  of  metamorphic  rocks  contorted  and  crumpled 
and  twisted  and  jumbled  into  a  shape  which  had  nothing 
of  the  appearance  of  suitableness  for  plant  or  animal 
life.  It  would  require  much  time  after  this  bleak  and 
barren  assemblage  of  rocks  got  above  the  water  for  them 
to  expand  into  a  continent  and  assume  a  fit  form  for 
the  habitation  of  man.  It  had  to  go  through  the  long 
years  of  the  Silurian,  Devonian,  Carboniferous,  Triassic, 
Jurassic,  Cretaceous,  and  possibly  into  the  Tertiary 
period  before  it  could  be  ready  for  human  life.  It, 
however,  got  the  start  of  other  continents,  and  there 
is  no  good  reason  for  supposing  that  it  did  not  con 
tinue  in  the  lead  until  it  became  the  habitation  of  the 
original  man.  There  is  reason >  therefore,  for  believing 
that  the  existence  of  the  earth  from  its  nebulous  stage 
to  the  beginning  of  the  Azoic  age  was  as  long  as  from 
its  beginning  in  the  Azoic  to  the  Psychozoic  age.  And 
if  this  be  so,  another  fearful  period  of  from  one 


74          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

hundred  to  four  hundred  millions  of  years  would  have 
to  be  added  to  the  entire  duration  of  the  earth.  Such 
figures,  however,  are  about  as  reliable  as  counting  the 
sands  of  the  seashore  without  seeing  them. 

It  has  recently,  however,  been  contended  by  some  of 
the  most  eminent  of  geologists  that  North  America  was 
the  first  of  the  continents.  In  the  Canadian  geological 
surveys  the  earliest  sedimentary  rocks  were  found  in  the 
Laurentian  Mountains,  and  as  no  older  rocks  have  been 
found  anywhere,  America  was  pronounced  the  first 
born  of  the  continents.  Louis  Agassiz,  in  speaking  of 
America  as  the  oldest  of  the  continents,  grew  eloquent 
and  expressed  himself  in  his  "Geological  Sketches," 
volume  i,  page  i,  and  paragraph  i,  in  the  following 
language : 

"  First  born  among  the  continents,  though  so  much 
later  in  culture  and  civilization  than  some  of  more  re 
cent  birth,  America,  so  far  as  her  physical  history  is  con 
cerned,  has  been  falsely  denominated  the  New  World. 
Hers  was  the  first  dry  land  lifted  out  of  the  waters,  hers 
the  first  shore  washed  by  the  ocean  that  enveloped  all 
the  earth  beside;  and  while  Europe  was  represented  only 
by  islands  rising  here  and  there  above  the  sea,  America 
already  stretched  an  unbroken  line  of  land  from  Nova 
Scotia  to  the  far  west. ' ' 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         75 


XII.     AMERICA   THE   FIRST  INHABITED   OF   THE 
CONTINENTS 

It  was  the  belief  of  the  wise  Thomas  Jefferson  that 
America  was  the  first  seat  of  the  human  race,  and  tha^t 
the  eastern  hemisphere  was  peopled  from  the  western. 
A  letter  written  by  him  to  President  Stiles  of  Yale  Col 
lege,  in  1786,  while  he  represented  the  United  States  at 
the  Court  of  France,  was  published  in  the  "American 
Museum"  for  November,  1787,  page  492.  From  this  let 
ter  the  following  extract  is  taken,  clearly  stating  Mr. 
Jefferson's  belief  that  the  first  inhabitants  of  Asia,  who 
so  much  resembled  the  American  aborigines,  went  from 
America  to  Asia  instead  of  coming  from  Asia  to  America: 

"  I  return  you  my  thanks  for  the  communications 
relative  to  the  weftern  country.  When  we  reflect  how 
long  we  have  inhabited  thofe  parts  of  America,  which  lie 
between  the  Alleghany  and  the  ocean — that  no  monument 
has  ever  been  found  in  them,  which  indicated  the  ufe  of 
iron  among  its  aboriginal  inhabitants — that  they  were  as 
far  advanced  in  arts,  at  leaft  as  the  inhabitants  on  the 
other  fide  of  the  Alleghany  a  good  degree  of  infidelity 
may  be  excufed  as  to  the  new  difcoveries  which  fuppofe 
regular  fortifications  of  brick  work  to  have  been  in  ufe 
among  the  Indians  on  the  waters  of  the  Ohio.  Intrench- 


76          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

ments  of  earth  they  might  indeed  make,  but  brick  is 
more  difficult.  The  art  of  making  it  may  have  preceded 
the  ufe  of  iron;  but  it  would  fuppofe  a  greater  degree 
of  induftry  than  men  in  the  hunter  ftate  ufually  poffefs. 
I  should  like  to  know  whether  General  Parfons  himfelf 
faw  actual  bricks  among  the  remains  of  fortifications.  I 
fuppofe  the  fettlement  of  our  continent  is  of  the  moft 
remote  antiquity;  the  similitude  between  its  inhabitants 
and  thofe  of  the  eastern  parts  of  Aria,  render  it  probable 
that  ours  are  defcended  from  them,  or  they  from  ours. 
The  latter  is  my  opinion,  founded  on  this  fingle  fact. 
Among  the  red  inhabitants  of  Afia  there  are  but  few  lan 
guages  radically  different;  but  among  our  Indians,  the 
number  of  languages  'is  infinite,  which  are  fo  radically 
different  as  to  exhibit  at  prefent  no  appearance  of  their 
having  been  derived  from  a  common  fource.  The  time 
neceffary  for  the  generation  of  fo  many  languages  muft 
be  immenfe." 

Mr.  Jefferson  gave  the  best  reason  he  could  for  his 
belief  that  the  first  inhabitants  went  from  America  to 
Asia  instead  of  coming  from  Asia  to  America.  Since  his 
time,  however,  scientific  research,  in  its  wonderful  prog 
ress,  has  developed  other  reasons  for  the  truth  of  this 
theory.  Scientists  have  exhumed,  in  America,  the  skele 
tons  of  past  geological  ages  and  the  remains  of  dead 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         77 

human  beings  which  gave  evidence  of  as  early  existence 
here  as  any  yet  found  outside  of  America.  Had  Mr. 
Jefferson  lived  to  this  time  he  might  have  been  foremost 
among  the  scientists  whose  investigations  look  to  solv 
ing  the  problem  of  the  oldest  continent  and  the  first 
human  beings  on  the  globe. 

The  Red  Indians  were  the  oldest  inhabitants  of  Amer 
ica  known  to  white  men,  though  there  were  here,  doubt 
less,  older  beings  who  antedated  them  by  many  centuries 
and  had  many  traditions  as  to  their  origin,  but  none 
sufficiently  divested  of  myth  and  absurdity  to  lead  to  a 
rational  conclusion  as  to  the  first  country  inhabited  by 
them  or  the  beginning  of  its  occupation.  They  had  some 
vague  traditions  of  a  very  long-ago  people  who  were  in 
habitants  of  this  country  before  them,  but  nothing  suf 
ficiently  definite  for  reliable  information  as  to  the  char 
acter  or  the  time  of  this  people.  Some  tribes  believed 
that  their  ancestors  had  sprung  from  the  ground  in  this 
country,  and  that  they  and  their  descendants  had  never 
lived  in  any  other  land.  Others  believed  that  their  an 
cestors  had  come  from  a  distant  land,  but  they  could 
give  no  intelligent  account  as  to  where  that  distant  land 
might  be  or  when  they  left  it  and  came  to  this.  The 
traditions  of  the  wigwam  throw  no  satisfactory  light  on 
the  dark  problem  as  to  which  of  the  continents  was  first 


7 8          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

inhabited  by  man.  All  information  on  this  subject  that 
is  worth  knowing  has  come  from  another  source,  and 
that  source  is  not  from  the  living  of  the  present  or  of 
the  unknown  past.  As  we  must  look  into  the  rock-built 
graveyards  of  buried  fossilized  animals  to  learn  their 
history,  so  we  must  exhume  the  relics  and  skeletons  of 
dead  and  forgotten  human  beings  to  learn  where  and 
how  they  began  life  on  the  earth,  and  on  this  con 
tinent. 

The  implements  and  bones  of  primitive  man  have 
been  found  in  the  caves  and  in  the  river-drift  of  Europe 
mingled  with  the  bones  of  extinct  animals  which  inhab 
ited  the  earth  during  the  Quaternary  age.  In  the  drift 
of  the  upper  terrace  of  the  river  Somme,  in  France,  have 
been  found  flint  implements  which  had  been  chipped 
into  shape  by  man,  associated  with  the  bones  of  such 
extinct  Quaternary  animals  as  the  mammoth,  the  rhinoc 
eros  and  the  cave  lion.  In  a  cave  at  Mentone,  near  Nice, 
the  skeleton  of  a  man  was  found  with  paleolithic  imple 
ments  near  him  and  the  bones  of  extinct  Quaternary 
animals  about  him.  The  bones  had  been  preserved  by  a 
covering  of  stalagmite,  and  the  teeth  of  the  reindeer— 
which  had  probably  been  used  as  ornaments — showed  the 
holes  with  which  they  had  been  pierced.  In  a  cave  on 
the  river  Vizere  was  found  a  piece  of  bone  shaped  by  man 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans          79 

on  which  there  was  a  rude  drawing  of  the  mammoth 
whose  tusk  had  furnished  the  plate  on  which  the  picture 
was  etched.  Such  findings  as  these  in  the  undisturbed 
dust  of  the  cave  or  the  drift  of  the  river  clearly  indicate 
that  man  was  there  in  the  Quaternary  age,  and  possibly 
contending  with  those  extinct  animals  for  the  caves  as 
a  habitation.  The  cases  cited  are  among  the  oldest  evi 
dences  of  man  yet  found  in  the  eastern  hemisphere  and 
there  is  no  need  of  citing  others,  though  many  exist  not 
only  in  France,  but  in  Belgium,  in  England,  in  Norway, 
and  in  other  countries.  As  early,  however,  as  they  in 
dicate  the  presence  of  man  in  the  eastern  hemisphere, 
there  have  been  findings  of  his  relics  and  his  bones  in 
America  which  show  his  presence  here  as  early,  if  not 
earlier.  Evidences  of  man  in  America  during  the  Qua 
ternary  age,  which  some  geologists  estimate  as  two  hun 
dred  thousand  years  ago,  while  others  make  the  time 
much  longer,  have  been  found  in  the  sands  and  gravels 
drifted  by  glacial  currents  and  in  localities  with  sur 
roundings  possibly  indicating  the  Tertiary  age. 

In  the  glacial  drift  on  a  bluff  in  the  valley  of  the  Del 
aware  River,  near  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  have  been  found 
rudely  chipped  argillite  implements  which  scientists  have 
pronounced  paleolithic.  They  were  found  imbedded  in 
the  sands  and  gravel,  which  clearly  indicated  that  they 


8o          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

had  reposed  undisturbed  ever  since  they  had  been  de 
posited  there  by  the  glacial  flood  which  deposited  the 
sands  and  pebbles  around  them.  The  hard  stone  of  which 
they  had  been  made  could  not  have  been  worn  or  chipped 
into  the  shape  they  bore  by  any  force  except  that  of  the 
hand  of  man,  and  hence  it  is  inferred  that  man  was  there 
when  the  current  of  the  melting  ice  of  the  early  glacial 
period  bore  them  there.  This  would  take  man  back 
thousands  of  years  beyond  the  Quaternary  age  to  his 
possible  existence  in  America  in  the  Tertiary  age. 

In  the  auriferous  gravels  of  an  old  river  bed  in  Cala- 
veras  County,  California,  was  found  at  the  bottom  of  a 
mining  shaft,  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  below  the  sur 
face,  the  skull  of  a  human  being.  Over  it  had  been  de 
posited  four  successive  beds  of  gold-bearing  drift  and  five 
streams  of  lava  from  volcanoes  long  since  extinct.  The 
gold-bearing  gravels  in  which  it  was  found  belonged  to 
the  Tertiary  age,  and  man  is  therefore  assumed  to  have 
been  in  California  during  that  age. 

On  the  Bourbois  River,  in  Missouri,  the  skeleton  of 
a  mastodon  was  found  buried  in  such  a  position  and  with 
such  surroundings  as  to  indicate  that  the  animal  had 
been  rendered  helpless  by  being  mired,  and  in  that  con 
dition  killed  by  human  beings.  Arrow-heads  were  found 
about  and  around  it,  and  wood  ashes  indicated  that  fire 


LLYN   OGWEN 


GWRYCH   CASTLE 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans          8 1 

had  helped  in  its  destruction.  As  no  animal  but  man 
is  known  to  have  used  fire,  it  was  assumed  that  the 
monster  had  been  killed  by  a  fire  when  the  paleolithic 
weapons  had  failed. 

Many  other  instances  of  the  relics  of  man  found  in 
the  glacial  drift  might  be  cited,  but  the  above  three  are 
enough  to  show  that  he  was  in  America  as  early  as  he 
was  in  the  eastern  hemisphere  and  perhaps  earlier,  and 
that  America  did  not  need  immigrants  from  the  east  or 
from  any  other  terrestrial  source  to  begin  her  population. 
America  possibly  had  citizens  to  spare  while  the  eastern 
hemisphere  was  void  of  inhabitants. 

Besides  the  three  cases  before  cited,  which  carried 
the  inhabitants  of  America  back  beyond  the  Quaternary 
and  into  the  Tertiary  age,  there  are  examples  of  man's 
very  early  appearance  upon  the  American  continent,  in 
which  the  time  is  sometimes  given  in  years. 

In  the  Mammoth  Cave  of  Kentucky  a  mummy  was 
to  be  seen,  early  in  the  last  century,  about  the  age  of 
which  no  reliable  conjecture  was  formed,  from  the  fact 
that  it  was  said  to  have  been  removed  from  an  adjacent 
cave  without  noting  with  sufficient  particularity  the  orig 
inal  position  it  occupied.  As  it  appeared  in  the  Mam 
moth  Cave,  it  was  sitting  in  an  excavation  about  four 
feet  square  and  three  feet  deep.  The  skeleton — that  of 


82          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

a  female — was  perfectly  preserved,  with  the  flesh  and 
skin  dried  upon  it.  It  was  clad  first  in  the  skin  of  a  deer 
and  over  this  was  a  mantle  made  of  the  inner  bark  of 
the  linden  tree.  The  hair  was  cut  short  and  was  of  a 
dark  red  color.  The  woman  was  above  the  average  size 
and  was  neither  black  nor  red,  but  of  a  light  complexion. 
By  her  side  was  a  large  reticule  or  sack,  made  of  the  in 
ner  bark  of  the  linden  tree.  In  this  ample  portmanteau 
were  the  following  articles:  one  cap  of  woven  or  knit 
bark;  seven  head-dresses  made  of  the  quills  of  birds,  so 
put  together  that  when  placed  upon  the  head  the  quilled 
ends  would  bind  the  head  while  the  feathered  ends  would 
expand  like  an  umbrella  and  make  a  showy  head-dress; 
hundreds  of  seeds  of  a  dark  color  strung  together  like 
beads;  a  number  of  the  red  hoofs  of  the  fawn,  strung 
together  into  a  necklace;  the  claw  of  an  eagle,  with  a  string 
through  it  so  it  could  be  worn  as  a  pendant;  the  jaw  of 
a  bear,  seemingly  designed  to  be  worn  also  as  a  pendant; 
the  skins  of  two  rattlesnakes,  with  fourteen  rattles  still 
upon  one  of  them;  a  quantity  of  coloring  matter  done  up 
in  leaves;  a  small  bunch  of  threads  or  strings  made  of 
the  sinews  of  the  deer;  a  number  of  needles  made  of  bone, 
and  two  whistles  of  cane.  How  long  she  was  an  occu 
pant  of  the  cave  we  have  no  means  of  determining  or 
even  of  rationally  estimating,  but  if  the  cave  was  two 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans         83 

million  years  old,  as  stated  by  Professor  Shaler,  she  might 
be  allowed  a  few  thousand  of  these  years  for  her  enjoy 
ment  of  the  darkness  and  solitude  of  her  subterranean 
abode. 

The  skeleton  of  a  man  found  in  a  Florida  reef  was 
pronounced  by  Agassiz  to  be  ten  thousand  years  old. 

While  excavating  for  the  gas-works  in  New  Orleans 
a  human  skeleton  was  found  in  the  delta  of  the  Missis 
sippi  below  four  successive  forests  and  pronounced  by 
Doctor  Fowler  to  have  been  there  fifteen  thousand  years. 

That  mysterious  people  who  antedated  the  Red  Indian 
and  covered  the  Mississippi  Valley  with  mounds,  circum- 
vallations,  temples,  and  fortifications,  and  scattered  every 
where  stone  axes,  flint  arrow-heads,  pottery,  pipes,  and 
ornaments  of  copper  and  clay,  may  have  been  the  autoch 
thons  of  America.  Some  of  their  mounds — and  especially 
those  immense  piles  at  Cahokia  and  Grave  Creek — remind 
us  of  the  mass  heaped  over  the  body  of  Alyattes  near 
Sardis,  but  unlike  that  monarch's  mound,  believed  to 
have  existed  twenty-five  hundred  years,  they  furnish  no 
key  to  the  time  at  which  they  were  reared.  Trees  have 
been  found  growing  upon  some  of  them  whose  annulations 
showed  them  to  be  eight  hundred  years  old,  but  this 
determined  nothing  as  to  the  real  age  of  the  mounds.  The 
trees  that  measured  eight  hundred  years  may  have  been 


84          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

preceded  by  others  and  those  again  by  others  of  equal 
or  greater  age,  and  so  on  until  thousands  of  years  were 
exhausted  in  the  indeterminate  calculation.  Some  of  these 
trees  may  have  antedated  the  giant  redwoods  of  Cali 
fornia  or  the  fossil  forests  of  Yellowstone  Park,  but  we 
have  nothing  to  guide  us  in  arriving  at  a  just  conclusion 
as  to  their  age. 

In  the  midst  of  these  perplexities,  we  can  have  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  the  Power  which  is  said  to  have 
created  man  in  Asia  might  have  created  him  elsewhere, 
and  placed  him  in  habitable  quarters  in  America  before 
any  part  of  the  eastern  hemisphere  was  ready  for  his 
occupancy.  The  first  formed  rocks  which  have  yet  been 
seen  upon  the  globe,  and  the  earliest  forms  of  life  yet 
discovered,  and  the  oldest  human  relics  which  have  yet 
been  found,  were  in  America.  If,  therefore,  man  first 
lived  and  died  and  laid  down  his  bones  in  the  western 
world  before  he  died  and  laid  them  down  in  the  eastern 
hemisphere,  why  should  we  look  for  his  origin  in  the  East 
instead  of  the  West?  Why  not  claim  him  where  we  first 
find  his  remains,  instead  of  troubling  ourselves  about  the 
time  of  his  coming  and  the  place  whence  he  came?  The 
Orientals  have  not  been  able  in  thousands  of  years  to 
fix  the  latitude  and  longitude  of  the  Garden  of  Eden, 
where  the  human  race  is  claimed  to  have  first  begun 


Traditions  of  the  Rarliest  Americans         85 

existence,  and  as  the  question  is  still  open  the  Occi 
dentals  may  reasonably  claim  America  as  the  first  land 
above  the  ocean  and  the  first  inhabited  by  man,  until 
the  proof  is  made  clear  of  an  earlier  inhabited  continent. 
When  the  two  sons  of  a  pioneer  widow  of  Kentucky 
were  slain  by  the  Indians  and  their  dead  bodies  brought 
home  for  interment,  she  was  asked  if  she  had  any  choice  as 
to  the  location  of  the  graves.  She  said  that  she  wanted 
space  left  next  to  her  husband  for  her  own  grave,  and 
her  eldest  son  laid  next  to  where  she  was  to  lie;  that  he 
was  her  firstborn,  and  was  entitled  to  burial  next  to  her 
who  had  given  him  life.  And  so  Americans  should  feel 
toward  their  country.  If  America  was  the  first-born  and 
first-inhabited  of  the  continents,  she  is  entitled  to  the 
place  of  honor  in  the  construction  and  the  peopling  of 
the  globe.  Other  continents  like  the  American  may  have 
had  contemporaneous  foundations  laid  down  in  the  an 
cient  seas  that  enveloped  the  infant  world.  America, 
however,  was  the  first  built  up,  and  the  first  to  show 
dry  land  above  the  universal  ocean.  A  length  of  time 
that  defies  all  computation  was  necessary  for  each  of  the 
continents  to  rise  from  its  submerged  position  and  pass 
through  the  Azoic,  the  Silurian,  the  Devonian,  the  Car 
boniferous  and  the  Reptilian  ages  to  the  age  of  Man,  the 
most  exalted  of  all  animals;  but  when  man  was  crea- 


86          Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans 

ted  and  to  be  placed  upon  the  earth,  the  continent  that 
first  rose  above  the  water  and  showed  the  first  dry  land 
was  presumably  the  first  ready  for  his  occupancy.  He 
was  doubtless  a  frightful  barbarian,  as  he  first  appeared 
naked  in  summer  and  skin-wrapped  in  winter,  living  in 
caverns  and  feeding  upon  the  spontaneous  fruits  of  the 
earth  and  on  such  of  the  wild  animals  as  he  could  subdue. 
He  had  no  member  like  the  paw  of  the  cave  bear  to  seize 
his  food  and  fight  his  battles,  but  he  had  a  hand  which 
could  fashion  the  adamantine  rocks  and  make  them 
more  effective  than  the  great  claws  and  huge  teeth  and 
mighty  strength  of  other  animals.  He  soon  rose  above 
the  formidable  beasts  around  him  and  made  them  subject 
to  his  will,  because  he  had  a  mind  which  reasoned  and 
added  each  new  item  of  knowledge  to  the  store  already 
gathered,  while  the  other  animals  never  advanced  beyond 
that  with  which  they  started. 

There  is  deeply  implanted  in  our  nature  a  love  of  the 
distant  past,  and  the  nearer  it  approaches  the  confines  of 
the  dark  unknown  the  more  we  are  enamored  of  it.  We 
like  old  things,  and  the  older  they  are  the  better  we  like 
them.  Americans  should  be  proud  to  claim  theirs  as  the 
first  of  the  continents  to  rise  above  the  waves  of  the  uni 
versal  ocean  and  the  first  to  furnish  an  abiding-place  for 
the  human  race.  This  may  be  likened  by  some  to  those 


Traditions  of  the  Earliest  Americans          87 

genealogical  enthusiasts  who  would  trace  their  descent 
from  Adam,  but  such  extravagance  can  hardly  eradicate 
the  sentiment.  They  are  proud  to  look  back  to  the  hum 
ble  beginning  of  barbarian  man  upon  this  continent,  and 
to  follow  his  progress  through  incalculable  ages  to  the 
splendors  of  the  present  and  the  possibilities  of  the  future. 
America,  long  deprived  of  the  honor  of  her  proper  place 
among  the  continents  by  being  called  the  New  World, 
has  at  last  been  pronounced  by  geologists  the  first  to  ex 
ist,  and  the  analogical  inference  is  reasonable  that  she 
was  the  first  to  be  inhabited.  Americans  expect  of  scien 
tists  that  they  will  continue  to  study  the  rock-leaved  vol 
umes  of  the  world  and  to  search  among  the  undestroyed 
remains  of  primeval  man  until  it  is  clearly  determined 
that  as  America  is  the  oldest  of  the  continents,  she  was 
also  the  first  to  be  inhabited  by  man. 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 

i 

EXTINCTION   OF  THE   MANDANS 

[Catlin's  North  American  Indians,  Volume  2,  Pages  777-781] 

From  the  accounts  brought  to  New  York  in  the  fall 
of  1838,  by  Messrs.  M'Kensie,  Mitchell,  and  others,  from 
the  upper  Missouri,  and  with  whom  I  conversed  on  the 
subject,  it  seems  that  in  the  summer  of  that  year  the 
small-pox  was  accidentally  introduced  amongst  the  Man- 
dans,  by  the  Fur  Traders;  and  that  in  the  course  of  two 
months  they  all  perished,  except  some  thirty  or  forty, 
who  were  taken  as  slaves  by  the  Riccarees;  an  enemy 
living  two  hundred  miles  below  them,  and  who  moved  up 
and  took  possession  of  their  village  soon  after  their  ca 
lamity,  taking  up  their  residence  in  it,  it  being  a  better 
village  than  their  own;  and  from  the  lips  of  one  of  the 
Traders  who  had  more  recently  arrived  from  there,  I  had 
the  following  account  of  the  remaining  few,  in  whose  de 
struction  was  the  final  termination  of  this  interesting  and 
once  numerous  tribe. 

The  Riccarees,  he  said,  had  taken  possession  of  the  vil 
lage  after  the  disease  had  subsided,  and  after  living  some 
months  in  it,  were  attacked  by  a  party  of  their  enemies, 
the  Sioux,  and  whilst  fighting  desperately  in  resistance,  in 
which  the  Mandan  prisoners  had  taken  an  active  part,  the 
latter  had  concerted  a  plan  for  their  own  destruction, 
which  was  effected  by  their  simultaneously  running  through 
the  piquets  on  to  the  prairie,  calling  out  to  the  Sioux  (both 
men  and  women)  to  kill  them,  "  that  they  were  Riccaree 


92  Appendix 

dogs,  that  their  friends  were  all  dead,  and  that  they  did 
not  wish  to  live, ' '  that  they  here  wielded  their  weapons  as 
desperately  as  they  could,  to  excite  the  fury  of  their  enemy, 
and  that  they  were  thus  cut  to  pieces  and  destroyed. 

The  accounts  given  by  two  or  three  white  men,  who 
were  amongst  the  Mandans  during  the  ravages  of  this 
frightful  disease,  are  most  appalling  and  actually  too  heart 
rending  and  disgusting  to  be  recorded.  The  disease  was 
introduced  into  the  country  by  the  Fur  Company's  steam 
er  from  St.  Louis;  which  had  two  or  three  of  their  crew 
sick  with  the  disease  when  it  approached  the  upper  Mis 
souri,  and  imprudently  stopped  to  trade  at  the  Mandan 
village,  which  was  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  where  the 
chiefs  and  others  were  allowed  to  come  on  board,  by  which 
means  the  disease  got  ashore. 

I  am  constrained  to  believe  that  the  gentlemen  in 
charge  of  the  steamer  did  not  believe  it  to  be  the  small 
pox;  for  if  they  had  known  it  to  be  such,  I  cannot 
conceive  of  such  imprudence  as  regarded  their  own 
interests  in  the  country,  as  well  as  the  fate  of  these 
poor  people,  by  allowing  their  boat  to  advance  into 
the  country  under  such  circumstances. 

It  seems  that  the  Mandans  were  surrounded  by  sev 
eral  war-parties  of  their  most  powerful  enemies,  the  Sioux, 
at  that  unlucky  time,  and  they  could  not  therefore  dis 
perse  upon  the  plains,  by  which  many  of  them  could  have 
been  saved;  and  they  were  necessarily  inclosed  within  the 
piquets  of  their  villages,  where  the  disease  in  a  few  days 
became  so  very  malignant  that  death  ensued  in  a  few 
hours  after  its  attacks;  and  so  slight  were  their  hopes 
when  they  were  attacked,  that  nearly  half  of  them  de 
stroyed  themselves  with  their  knives,  with  their  guns, 


Appendix  93 

and  by  dashing  their  brains  out  by  leaping  headforemost 
from  a  thirty-foot  ledge  of  rocks  in  front  of  their  village. 
The  first  symptom  of  the  disease  was  a  rapid  swelling  of 
the  body,  and  so  very  virulent  had  it  become,  that  very 
many  died  in  two  or  three  hours  after  their  attack,  and 
that  in  many  cases  without  the  appearance  of  the  disease 
upon  the  skin.  Utter  dismay  seemed  to  possess  all  classes 
and  all  ages,  and  they  gave  themselves  up  in  despair,  as 
entirely  lost.  There  was  but  one  continual  crying  and 
howling  and  praying  to  the  Great  Spirit,  for  his  protec 
tion  during  the  nights  and  days,  and  there  being  but  few 
living,  and  those  in  too  appalling  despair,  nobody  thought 
of  burying  the  dead,  whose  bodies,  whole  families  together, 
were  left  in  horrid  and  loathsome  piles  in  their  own 
wigwams,  with  a  few  buffalo  robes,  etc.,  thrown  over  them, 
there  to  decay  and  to  be  devoured  by  their  own  dogs.  That 
such  a  proportion  of  their  community  as  that  above  men 
tioned,  should  have  perished  in  so  short  a  time,  seems  yet 
to  the  reader,  an  unaccountable  thing;  but  in  addition  to 
the  causes  just  mentioned,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
this  frightful  disease  is  everywhere  far  more  fatal  amongst 
the  native  than  in  civilized  population,  which  may  be 
owing  to  some  extraordinary  constitutional  susceptibility ; 
or,  I  think  more  probably,  to  the  exposed  lives  they  lead, 
leading  more  directly  to  fatal  consequences.  In  this,  as  in 
most  of  their  diseases,  they  ignorantly  and  imprudently 
plunge  into  the  coldest  water,  whilst  in  the  highest  state 
of  fever,  and  often  die  before  they  have  power  to  get  out. 
Some  have  attributed  the  unexampled  fatality  of  this 
disease  amongst  the  Indians  to  the  fact  of  their  living  en 
tirely  on  animal  food;  but  so  important  a  subject  for  in 
vestigation  I  must  leave  for  sounder  judgments  than  mine 


94  Appendix 

to  decide.  They  are  a  people  whose  constitutions  and 
habits  of  life  enable  them  most  certainly  to  meet  most  of 
its  ills  with  less  dread,  and  with  decidedly  greater  success, 
than  they  are  met  in  civilized  communities;  and  I  would 
not  dare  to  decide  that  their  simple  meat  diet  was  the  cause 
of  their  fatal  exposure  to  one  frightful  disease,  when  I  am 
decidedly  of  opinion  that  it  has  been  the  cause  of  their 
exemption  and  protection  from  another,  almost  equally 
destructive,  and,  like  the  former,  of  civilized  introduction. 

During  the  season  of  the  ravages  of  the  Asiatic  chol 
era,  which  swept  over  the  greater  part  of  the  western 
country,  and  the  Indian  frontier,  I  was  a  traveller 
through  those  regions,  and  was  able  to  witness  its  effects; 
and  I  learned  from  what  I  saw,  as  well  as  from  what  I 
have  heard  in  other  parts  since  that  time,  that  it 
travelled  to  and  over  the  frontiers,  carrying  dismay  and 
death  amongst  the  tribes  on  the  borders  in  many  cases, 
so  far  as  they  had  adopted  the  civilized  modes  of  life, 
with  its  dissipations,  using  vegetable  food  and  salt;  but 
wherever  it  came  to  the  tribes  living  exclusively  on 
meat,  and  that  without  the  use  of  salt,  its  progress 
was  suddenly  stopped.  I  mention  this  as  a  subject 
which  I  looked  upon  as  important  to  science,  and  there 
fore  one  on  which  I  made  many  careful  inquiries;  and  so 
far  as  I  have  learned  along  that  part  of  the  frontier  over 
which  I  have  since  passed,  I  have  to  my  satisfaction  ascer 
tained  that  such  became  the  utmost  limits  of  this  fatal 
disease  in  its  travels  to  the  west,  unless  where  it  might 
have  followed  some  of  the  routes  of  the  Fur  Traders,  who, 
of  course,  have  introduced  the  modes  of  civilized  life. 

From  the  trader  who  was  present  at  the  destruction 
of  the  Mandans  I  had  many  most  wonderful  incidents  of 


Appendix  95 

this  dreadful  scene,  but  I  dread  to  recite  them.  Amongst 
them,  however,  there  is  one  that  I  must  briefly  describe, 
relative  to  the  death  of  that  noble  gentleman  of  whom 
I  have  already  said  so  much,  and  to  whom  I  became  so 
much  attached,  Mah-to-toh-pa,  or  'The  Four  Bears." 
This  fine  fellow  sat  in  his  wigwam  and  watched  every 
one  of  his  family  die  about  him,  his  wives  and  little  chil 
dren,  after  he  had  recovered  from  the  disease  himself; 
when  he  walked  out,  around  the  village,  and  wept  over 
the  final  destruction  of  his  tribe,  his  braves  and  warriors, 
whose  sinewy  arms  alone  could  he  depend  on  for  a  con 
tinuance  of  their  existence,  all  laid  low;  when  he  came 
back  to  his  lodge,  where  he  covered  his  whole  family  in 
a  pile,  with  a  number  of  robes,  and  wrapping  another 
around  himself,  went  out  upon  a  hill  at  a  little  distance 
where  he  laid  several  days,  despite  all  the  solicitations  of 
the  Traders,  resolved  to  starve  himself  to  death.  He  re 
mained  there  till  the  sixth  day  when  he  had  just  strength 
enough  to  creep  back  to  the  village,  when  he  entered  the 
horrid  gloom  of  his  own  wigwam,  and  laying  his  body 
alongside  of  the  group  of  his  family,  drew  his  robe  over 
him  and  died  on  the  ninth  day  of  his  fatal  abstinence. 

So  have  perished  the  friendly  and  hospitable  Mandans, 
from  the  best  accounts  I  could  get;  and  although  it  may 
be  possible  that  some  few  individuals  may  yet  be  remain 
ing,  I  think  it  is  not  probable;  and  one  thing  is  certain, 
even  if  such  be  the  case,  that,  as  a  nation,  the  Mandans 
are  extinct,  having  no  longer  an  existence. 

There  is  yet  a  melancholy  part  of  the  tale  to  be  told, 
relating  to  the  ravages  of  this  frightful  disease  in  that 
country  on  the  same  occasion,  as  it  spread  to  other  con 
tiguous  tribes,  to  the  Minatarees,  the  Knisteneaux,  the 


96  Appendix 

Blackfeet,  the  Cheyennes,  the  Crows;  amongst  whom  twen 
ty-five  thousand  perished  in  the  course  of  four  or  five 
months,  which  most  appalling  facts  I  got  from  Major  Pil- 
cher,  now  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs  at  St.  Louis, 
from  Mr.  M'Kenzie  and  others. 

It  may  be  naturally  asked  here,  by  the  reader,  wheth 
er  the  Government  of  the  United  States  have  taken  any 
measures  to  prevent  the  ravages  of  this  fatal  disease 
amongst  these  exposed  tribes;  to  which  I  answer,  that 
repeated  efforts  have  been  made,  and  so  far  generally, 
as  the  tribes  have  ever  had  the  disease  (or  at  all  events, 
within  the  recollections  of  those  who  are  now  living  in 
the  tribes)  the  Government  agents  have  succeeded  in  in 
troducing  vaccination  as  a  protection;  but  amongst  those 
tribes  in  their  wild  state,  and  where  they  have  not  suffered 
with  the  disease,  very  little  success  has  been  met  with 
in  the  attempt  to  protect  them  on  account  of  their  su 
perstitions,  which  generally  resisted  all  attempts  to  intro 
duce  vaccination.  Whilst  I  was  on  the  Upper  Missouri, 
several  surgeons  were  sent  into  the  country  with  the  In 
dian  agents,  where  I  several  times  saw  the  attempts  made 
without  success.  They  have  perfect  confidence  in  the  skill 
of  their  own  physicians,  until  the  disease  had  made  one 
slaughter  in  their  tribe,  and  then  having  seen  white  men 
amongst  them  protected  by  it,  they  are  disposed  to  receive 
it,  before  which  they  cannot  believe  that  so  minute  a 
puncture  in  the  arm  is  going  to  protect  them  from  so 
fatal  a  disease;  and  as  they  see  white  men  so  earnestly 
urging  it,  they  decide  that  it  must  be  some  new  mode  or 
trick  of  pale  faces,  by  which  they  are  to  gain  some  new 
advantage  over  them,  and  they  stubbornly  and  success 
fully  resist  it. 


ABERMAW,   OR   BARMOUTH   VILLAGE 


RHUDDLAN  CASTLE 


Appendix  97 


ii 

[Catlin's  North  American  Indians,  Volume  2,  Pages  781-786] 
THE  WELSH   COLONY, 

Which  I  barely  spoke  of  in  page  319,  which  sailed  under 
the  direction  of  Prince  Madoc,  or  Madawe,  from  North 
Wales,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Twelfth  century  in  ten 
ships,  according  to  numerous  and  accredited  authors,  and 
never  returned  to  their  own  country,  have  been  supposed 
to  have  landed  somewhere  on  the  coast  of  North  or  South 
America;  and  from  the  best  authorities  (which  I  will  sup 
pose  everybody  had  read  rather  than  quote  them  at  this 
time)  I  believe  it  has  been  pretty  clearly  proved  that 
they  landed  either  on  the  coast  of  Florida  or  about  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  and  according  to  the  history  and 
poetry  of  their  country,  settled  somewhere  in  the  interior 
of  North  America,  where  they  are  yet  remaining,  inter 
mixed  with  some  of  the  savage  tribes. 

In  my  letter  just  referred  to,  I  barely  suggested,  that 
the  Mandans  whom  I  found  with  so  many  peculiarities 
in  looks  and  customs,  which  I  have  already  described, 
might  possibly  be  the  remains  of  this  lost  colony  amal 
gamated  with  a  tribe,  or  part  of  a  tribe  of  natives  which 
would  account  for  the  unusual  appearances  of  this  tribe 
of  Indians  and  also  for  the  changed  character  and  cus 
toms  of  the  Welsh  colonists,  provided  these  be  the  re 
mains  of  them. 

Since  those  notes  were  written  as  will  have  been  seen 
by  my  subsequent  letters,  I  have  descended  the  Missouri 
river  from  the  Mandan  village,  to  St.  Louis,  a  distance 
of  eighteen  hundred  miles,  and  have  taken  pains  to 


98  Appendix 

examine  its  shores;  and  from  the  repeated  remains  of  the 
ancient  location  of  the  Mandans,  which  I  met  with  on 
the  banks  of  that  river,  I  am  fully  convinced  that  I  have 
traced  them  down  nearly  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio  River, 
and  from  exactly  similar  appearances,  which  I  recollect 
to  have  seen  several  years  since  in  several  places  in  the 
interior  of  the  state  of  Ohio,  I  am  fully  convinced  that 
they  have  formerly  occupied  that  part  of  the  country, 
and  have,  from  some  cause  or  other,  been  put  in  motion, 
and  continued  to  make  their  repeated  moves  until  they 
arrived  at  the  place  of  their  residence  at  the  time  of  their 
extinction,  on  the  Upper  Missouri. 

These  ancient  fortifications,  which  are  very  numer 
ous  in  that  vicinity,  some  of  which  inclose  a  great  many 
acres,  and  being  built  on  the  banks  of  the  rivers,  with 
walls  in  some  places  twenty  or  thirty  feet  in  height,  with 
covered  ways  to  the  water,  evince  a  knowledge  of  the 
science  of  fortifications,  apparently  not  a  century  behind 
that  of  the  present  day,  were  evidently  never  built  by 
any  nation  of  savages  in  America,  and  present  to  us  in- 
contestible  proof  of  the  former  existence  of  a  people  very 
far  advanced  in  the  arts  of  civilization,  who  have,  from 
some  cause  or  other,  disappeared,  and  left  these  imperish 
able  proofs  of  their  former  existence. 

Now,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  the  ten  ships  of 
Madoc,  or  a  part  of  them  at  least,  entered  the  Mississippi 
River  at  the  Balize,  and  made  their  way  up  the  Missis 
sippi,  or  that  they  landed  somewhere  on  the  Florida  coast, 
and  that  their  brave  and  persevering  colonists  made  their 
way  through  the  interior  to  a  position  on  the  Ohio  River, 
where  they  cultivated  their  fields,  and  established  in  one 
of  the  finest  countries  on  earth,  a  flourishing  colony;  but 


Appendix  99 

were  at  length  set  upon  by  the  savages,  whom,  perhaps, 
they  provoked  to  warfare,  being  trespassers  on  their 
hunting-grounds,  and  by  whom,  in  overpowering  hordes, 
they  were  besieged,  until  it  was  necessary  to  erect  there 
fortifications  for  their  defense,  into  which  they  were  at 
last  driven  by  a  confederacy  of  tribes,  and  there  held 
till  their  ammunition  and  provisions  gave  out,  and 
they  in  the  end  had  all  perished  except  perhaps  that 
portion  of  them  who  might  have  formed  alliance  by 
marriage  with  the  Indians,  and  their  off-spring,  who 
would  have  been  half-breeds,  and  of  course  attached  to 
the  Indians'  side;  whose  lives  have  been  spared  in  the 
general  massacre;  and  at  length,  being  despised,  as  all 
half-breeds  of  enemies  are,  have  gathered  themselves  into 
a  band,  and  severing  from  their  parent  tribe,  have  moved 
off,  and  increased  in  numbers  and  strength,  as  they  have 
advanced  up  the  Missouri  river  to  the  place  where  they 
have  been  known  for  many  years  by  the  name  of 
Mandans,  a  corruption  or  abbreviation,  perhaps,  of 
"Madawgwys, "  the  name  applied  by  the  Welsh  to  the 
followers  of  Madawc. 

If  this  be  a  startling  theory  for  the  world,  they  will 
be  the  more  sure  to  read  the  following  brief  reasons  which 
I  bring  in  support  of  my  opinion;  and  if  they  do  not  sup 
port  me,  they  will  at  least  be  worth  knowing,  and  may, 
at  the  same  time,  be  the  means  of  eliciting  further  and 
more  successful  inquiry. 

As  I  have  said  on  page  415  and  in  other  places,  the 
marks  of  the  Mandan  villages  are  known  by  the  excava 
tions  of  two  feet  or  more  in  depth  and  thirty  or  forty 
feet  in  diameter,  of  a  circular  form,  made  in  the  ground 
for  the  foundations  of  their  wigwams,  which  leave  a  de- 


ioo  Appendix 

cided  remain  for  centuries,  and  one  that  is  easily  detected 
the  moment  that  it  is  met  with.  After  leaving  the  Man- 
dan  village,  I  found  the  marks  of  their  former  residence 
about  sixty  miles  below  where  they  were  then  living,  and 
from  which  they  removed  (from  their  own  account)  about 
sixty  or  eighty  years  since;  and  from  the  appearance  of 
the  number  of  their  lodges,  I  should  think,  that  at  that 
recent  date  there  must  have  been  three  times  the  num 
ber  that  were  living  when  I  was  amongst  them.  Near 
the  mouth  of  the  big  Shienne  river,  two  hundred  miles 
below  their  last  location,  I  found  still  more  ancient  re 
mains,  and  in  as  many  as  six  or  seven  other  places  between 
that  and  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio,  and  each  one,  as  I  vis 
ited  them,  appearing  more  and  more  ancient,  convincing 
me  that  these  people,  wherever  they  might  have  come 
from,  have  gradually  made  their  moves  up  the  banks  of 
the  Missouri,  to  the  place  where  I  visited  them. 

For  the  most  part  of  this  distance,  they  have  been 
in  the  heart  of  the  great  Sioux  country,  and  being  looked 
upon  by  the  Sioux  as  trespassers,  have  been  continually 
warred  upon  by  this  numerous  tribe,  who  have  endeav 
ored  to  extinguish  them,  as  they  have  been  endeavoring 
to  do  ever  since  our  first  acquaintance  with  them;  but 
who  being  always  fortified  by  a  strong  piquet  or  stock 
ade,  have  successfully  withstood  the  assaults  of  their  en 
emies,  and  preserved  the  remnant  of  their  tribe.  Through 
this  sort  of  gauntlet  they  have  run,  in  passing  through 
the  countries  of  these  warlike  and  hostile  tribes. 

It  may  be  objected  to  this,  perhaps,  that  the  Ricca- 
rees  and  the  Minatarees  build  their  wigwams  in  the  same 
way,  but  this  proves  nothing  for  the  Minatarees  are  Crows, 
from  the  northwest;  and  by  their  own  showing  fled  to 


Appendix  101 

the  Mandans  for  protection,  and  forming  their  villages 
by  the  side  of  them,  built  their  wigwams  in  the  same 
manner. 

The  Riccarees  have  been  a  very  small  tribe,  far  in 
ferior  to  the  Mandans,  and  by  the  traditions  of  the  Man- 
dans,  as  well  as  from  the  evidence  of  the  first  explorers, 
Lewis  and  Clark,  and  others,  have  lived,  until  quite  late 
ly,  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  the  Mandans,  whose  vil 
lages  they  have  successively  occupied  as  the  Mandans 
have  moved  and  vacated  them,  as  they  are  now  doing, 
since  disease  has  swept  the  whole  of  the  Mandans  away. 

Whether  my  derivation  of  the  word  Mandan  from 
Madawgwys  be  correct  or  not,  I  will  pass  it  over  to  the 
world  at  present  merely  as  presumptive  proof,  for  want 
of  better,  which  perhaps,  this  inquiry  may  elicit;  and  at 
the  same  time,  I  offer  the  Welsh  word  Mandon  (the  wood- 
roof,  a  species  of  madder  used  as  a  red  dye)  as  the  name 
that  might  possibly  have  been  applied  by  the  Welsh 
neighbors  to  these  people  on  account  of  their  very  ingeni 
ous  mode  of  giving  the  beautiful  red  and  other  dyes  to 
the  porcupine  quills  with  which  they  garnish  their  dresses. 
In  their  own  language  they  called  themselves  See-pohs- 
ke-nu-mah-kee  (the  people  of  the  pheasants)  which  was 
probably  the  name  of  the  primitive  stock,  before  they 
were  mixed  with  any  other  people;  and  to  have  got  such 
a  name,  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  they  must  have  come 
from  a  country  where  pheasants  existed,  which  cannot 
be  found  short  of  reaching  the  timbered  country  at  the 
base  of  the  Rocky  mountains,  some  six  or  eight  hundred 
miles  west  of  the  Mandans,  or  the  forests  of  Indiana  and 
Ohio,  some  hundreds  of  miles  to  the  south  and  east  of 
where  they  last  lived, 


102  Appendix 

The  above  facts,  together  with  the  one  which  they 
repeatedly  related  to  me,  and  which  I  have  before  alluded 
to,  that  they  had  often  been  to  the  hill  of  the  Red  Pipe 
Stone,  and  that  they  once  lived  near  it,  carry  conclusive 
evidence,  I  think,  that  they  formerly  occupied  a  country 
much  farther  to  the  south;  and  that  they  have  repeated 
ly  changed  their  locations,  until  they  reached  the  spot 
of  their  last  residence,  where  they  have  met  with  their 
final  misfortune.  And  as  evidence  in  support  of  my  opin 
ion  that  they  came  from  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  and  have 
brought  with  them  some  of  the  customs  of  the  civilized 
people  who  erected  those  ancient  fortifications,  I  am  able 
to  say,  that  the  numerous  specimens  of  pottery  which 
have  been  taken  from  the  graves  and  tumuli  about  those 
ancient  works,  (many  of  which  may  be  seen  now,  in  the 
Cincinnati  Museum,  and  some  of  which,  my  own  dona 
tions,  and  which  have  so  much  surprised  the  inquiring 
world)  were  to  be  seen  in  great  numbers  in  the  use  of 
the  Mandans;  and  scarcely  a  day  in  the  summer,  when 
the  visitor  to  their  village  would  not  see  the  women  at 
work  with  their  hands  and  fingers,  moulding  them  from 
black  clay,  into  vases,  cups,  pitchers,  and  pots,  and 
baking  them  in  their  little  kilns  in  the  sides  of  the  hill,  or 
under  the  bank  of  the  river. 

In  addition  to  this  art,  which  I  am  sure  belongs  to 
no  other  tribe  on  the  continent,  these  people  have 
also,  as  a  secret  with  themselves,  the  extraordinary 
art  of  manufacturing  a  very  beautiful  and  lasting  kind 
of  blue  glass  beads,  which  they  wear  on  their  necks 
in  great  quantities,  and  decidedly  value  them  above 
all  others  that  are  brought  amongst  them  by  the  Fur 
Traders. 


Appendix  103 

This  secret  is  not  only  one  that  the  Traders  did  not 
introduce  amongst  them,  but  one  that  they  cannot  learn 
from  them;  and  at  the  same  time,  beyond  a  doubt,  an 
art  that  has  been  introduced  amongst  them  by  some  civ 
ilized  people,  as  it  is  as  yet  unknown  to  other  Indian 
tribes  in  that  vicinity  or  elsewhere.  Of  this  interesting 
fact,  Lewis  and  Clark  have  given  an  account  thirty-three 
years  ago,  at  a  time  when  no  Traders  or  other  white  peo 
ple  had  been  amongst  the  Mandans,  to  have  taught  them 
so  curious  an  art. 

The  Mandan  canoes  which  are  altogether  different  from 
those  of  all  other  tribes,  are  exactly  the  Welsh  caracle, 
made  of  raw  hides,  the  skins  of  buffaloes,  stretched  un 
derneath  a  frame  made  of  willow  or  other  boughs  and 
shaped  nearly  round,  like  a  tub;  which  the  woman  car 
ries  on  her  head  from  her  wigwam  to  the  water's  edge, 
and  having  stepped  into  it,  stands  in  front,  and  propels 
it  by  dipping  her  paddle  forward  and  drawing  it  to  her 
instead  of  paddling  by  the  side. 

How  far  these  extraordinary  facts  may  go  in  the  esti 
mation  of  the  reader,  with  numerous  others  I  have  men 
tioned  in  volume  i,  whilst  speaking  of  Mandans,  of  their 
various  complexions,  colors  of  hair,  and  blue  and  grey 
eyes,  towards  establishing  my  opinion  as  a  sound  theory, 
I  cannot  say;  but  this  much  I  can  safely  aver,  that  at 
the  moment  I  first  saw  these  people,  I  was  so  struck  with 
the  peculiarity  of  their  appearance,  that  I  was  under  the 
instant  conviction  that  they  were  an  amalgam  of  a  na 
tive  with  some  civilized  race;  and  from  what  I  have  seen 
of  them,  and  of  the  remains  on  the  Missouri  and  Ohio 
rivers,  I  feel  fully  convinced  that  these  people  have  emi 
grated  from  the  latter  stream;  and  that  they  have,  in 


104  Appendix 

the  manner  that  I  have  already  stated,  with  many  of 
their  customs,  been  preserved  from  the  almost  total  de 
struction  of  the  bold  colonists  of  Madawe,  who,  I  believe, 
settled  upon  and  occupied  for  a  century  or  so,  the  rich 
and  fertile  banks  of  the  Ohio. 


in 

THE  ISLAND   OF  ATLANTIS 

[Windsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  the  United  States,  Volume  1.  Pages  15-21] 

The  story  of  Atlantis,  by  its  own  interest  and  the 
skill  of  its  author,  has  made  by  far  the  deepest  impres 
sion.  Plato,  having  given  in  the  Republic  a  picture  of 
the  ideal  political  organization,  the  state,  sketched  in  the 
Timasus  the  history  of  creation,  and  the  origin  and 
development  of  mankind;  in  the  Critias  he  apparently 
intended  to  exhibit  the  action  of  two  types  of  political 
bodies  involved  in  a  life  and  death  contest.  The  latter 
dialogue  was  unfinished,  but  its  purport  had  been 
sketched  in  the  opening  of  Timasus.  Critias  there  relates 
"a  strange  tale  but  certainly  true  as  Solon  declared, 
which  had  come  down  in  his  family  from  his  ancestor 
Dropidas,  a  near  relative  of  Solon.  When  Solon  was  in 
Egypt  he  fell  into  talk  with  an  aged  priest  of  Sais, 
who  said  to  him :  '  Solon,  Solon,  you  Greeks  are  all 
children, — there  is  not  one  old  man  in  Greece.  You 
have  no  traditions,  and  know  of  but  one  deluge, 
whereas  there  have  been  many  destructions  of  mankind, 
both  by  flood,  and  fire.  Egypt  alone  has  escaped 
them,  and  in  Egypt  alone  is  ancient  history  recorded; 
you  are  ignorant  of  your  own  past.  For  long  before 


BEAUMARIS   VILLAGE 


ENTRANCE  TO   BEAUMARIS   CASTLE 


Appendix  105 

Deucalion,  nine  thousand  years  ago,  there  was  an 
Athens  founded,  like  Sais,  by  Athena;  a  city  rich  in  pow 
er  and  wisdom,  famed  for  mighty  deeds,  the  greatest  of 
which  was  this.  At  that  time  there  lay  opposite  the  col 
umns  of  Hercules,  in  the  Atlantic,  which  was  then  navi 
gable,  an  island  larger  than  Libya  and  Asia  together, 
from  which  sailors  could  pass  to  other  islands,  and  so  to 
the  continent.  The  sea  in  front  of  the  straits  is  indeed 
but  a  small  harbor;  that  which  lay  beyond  the  island, 
however,  is  worthy  of  the  name,  and  the  land  which  sur 
rounds  that  greater  sea  may  be  truly  called  the  continent. 
In  this  island  of  Atlantis  had  grown  up  a  mighty  power, 
whose  kings  were  descended  from  Poseidon,  and  had  ex 
tended  their  sway  over  many  islands  and  over  a  portion 
of  the  great  continent;  even  Libya  up  to  the  gates  of 
Egypt  and  Europe  as  far  as  Tyrrhenia,  submitted  to  their 
sway.  Ever  harder  they  pressed  upon  the  other  nations 
of  the  known  world  seeking  the  subjugation  of  the  whole. 
Then  O  Solon,  did  the  strength  of  your  republic  become 
clear  to  all  men,  by  reason  of  her  courage  and  force.  Fore 
most  in  the  arts  of  war,  she  met  the  invader  at  the  head 
of  Greece;  abandoned  by  her  allies  she  triumphed  alone 
over  the  western  foe;  delivering  from  the  yoke  all  the 
nations  within  the  columns.  But  afterwards  came  a  day 
and  night  of  great  floods  and  earthquakes;  the  earth  en 
gulfed  all  the  Athenians  who  were  capable  of  bearing  arms, 
and  Atlantis  disappeared,  swallowed  by  the  waves;  hence 
it  is  that  this  sea  is  no  longer  navigable  from  the  vast 
mud- shoals  formed  by  the  vanished  island. '  This  talk  so 
impressed  Solon  that  he  meditated  an  epic  on  the  subject, 
but  on  his  return,  stress  of  public  business  prevented  his 
design.  In  the  Critias  the  empire  and  chief  city  of 


io6  Appendix 

Atlantis  is  described  with  wealth  of  detail,  and  the  descent 
of  the  royal  family  from  Atlas,  son  of  Poseidon,  and  a 
nymph  of  the  island,  is  set  forth.  In  the  midst  of  a  coun 
cil  upon  Olympus,  where  Zeus,  in  true  epic  style,  was 
revealing  to  the  gods  his  designs  concerning  the  approach 
ing  war,  the  dialogue  breaks  off." 

Such  is  the  talk  of  Atlantis.  Read  in  Plato,  the  na 
ture  and  meaning  of  the  narrative  seem  clear,  but  the 
commentators,  ancient  and  modern,  have  made  wild  work. 
The  voyage  of  Odysseus  has  grown  marvelously  in  extent 
since  he  abandoned  the  sea ;  lo  has  found  the  pens  of 
the  learned  more  potent  goads  than  Hera's  gadfly;  but 
the  travels  of  Atlantis  have  been  even  more  extraordinary. 
No  region  has  been  so  remote,  no  land  so  opposed  by 
location,  extent,  or  history  to  the  words  of  Plato,  but 
that  some  acute  investigator  has  found  in  it  the  origin 
of  the  lost  island.  It  has  been  identified  with  Africa, 
with  Spitzbergen,  with  Palestine.  The  learned  Latreille 
convinced  himself  that  Persia  best  fulfilled  the  conditions 
of  the  problem;  the  more  than  learned  Rudbeck  ardent 
ly  supported  the  claims  of  Sweden  through  three  folios. 
In  such  a  search  America  could  not  be  overlooked.  Go- 
mara,  Guillaume  de  Postel,  Wytfliet,  are  among  those 
who  have  believed  that  this  continent  was  Atlantis;  San- 
son  in  1669,  and  Vaugondy  in  1762,  ventured  to  issue  a 
map,  upon  which  the  division  of  that  island  among  the 
sons  of  Neptune  was  applied  to  America,  and  the  out 
skirts  of  the  lost  continent  were  extended  to  New  Zea 
land.  Such  work,  of  course,  needs  no  serious  consider 
ation.  Plato  is  our  authority,  and  Plato  declares  that 
Atlantis  lay  not  far  west  from  Spain,  and  that  it  disap 
peared  some  8,000  years  before  his  day.  An  inquiry  into 


Appendix  107 

the  truth  or  meaning  of  the  record  as  it  stands  is  quite 
justifiable,  and  has  been  several  times  undertaken,  with 
divergent  results.  Some,  notably  Paul  Gaffarel  and  Igna 
tius  Donnelly,  are  convinced  that  Plato  merely  adapted 
to  his  purpose  a  story  which  Solon  had  actually  brought 
from  Egypt  and  which  was  in  all  essentials  true.  Corrob- 
oration  of  the  existence  of  such  an  island  in  the  Atlantic 
is  found,  according  to  these  writers,  in  the  physical  con 
formation  of  the  Atlantic  basin,  and  in  marked  resemblance 
between  the  flora,  fauna,  civilization  and  language  of  the 
old  and  new  worlds,  which  demand  for  their  explanation 
the  prehistoric  existence  of  just  such  a  bridge  as  Atlantis 
would  have  supplied.  The  Atlantic  islands  are  the  loft 
iest  peaks  and  plateaus  of  the  submerged  islands.  In 
the  widely  spread  deluge  myths  Mr.  Donnelly  finds  strong 
confirmation  of  the  final  cataclysm.  He  places  in  Atlantis 
that  primitive  culture  which  M.  Bailly  sought  in  the  high 
lands  of  Asia,  and  President  Warren  refers  to  the  North 
Pole.  Space  fails  for  a  proper  examination  of  the  matter 
but  these  ingenious  arguments  remain  somewhat  top- 
heavy  when  all  is  said.  The  argument  from  ethnological 
resemblance  is  of  all  arguments  the  weakest  in  the  hands 
of  advocates.  It  is  of  value  only  when  wielded  by  men 
of  judicial  temperament  who  can  weigh  differences  against 
likenesses,  and  allow  for  the  narrow  range  of  nature's 
moulds.  The  existence  of  the  ocean  plateaus  revealed  by 
the  soundings  of  the  "Dolphin"  and  the  "Challenger" 
prove  nothing  as  to  their  having  been  once  raised  above 
the  waves;  the  most  of  the  Atlantic  islands  are  sharply 
cut  off  from  them.  Even  granting  the  pre-historic  migra 
tions  of  plants  and  animals  between  Europe  and  America, 
as  we  grant  it  between  America  and  Asia,  it  does  not 


io8  Appendix 

follow  that  it  took  place  across  mid-ocean,  and  it  would 
still  be  a  long  step  from  the  botanic  "bridge"  and  ele 
vated  "ridge"  to  the  island  empire  of  Plato.  In  short, 
the  conservative  view  advocated  by  Longinus,  that  the 
story  was  designed  by  Plato  as  a  literary  ornament  and 
a  philosophic  illustration,  is  no  less  probable  to-day  than 
when  it  was  suggested  in  the  schools  of  Alexandria.  At 
lantis  is  a  literary  myth,  belonging  with  Utopia,  the  New 
Atlantis,  and  the  Orbis  alter  et  idem  of  Bishop  Hall. 


IV 

THE  TRADITION   OF  PRINCE  MADOC  OF  WALES   IN  AMERICA 

ABOUT   1170 

[Bryant  and  Gay's  History  of  the  United  States,  Volume  1,  Pages  66-70] 

The  tradition  that  America  was  discovered  about  the 
year  1170  by  a  Welsh  prince  named  Madog,  or  Madoc,  is 
still  more  circumstantial  and  attempts  to  support  it  by 
later  evidence  have  been  made  from  time  to  time  for  the 
last  two  hundred  years.  Even  so  cautious  and  judicial  a 
critic  as  Humboldt  says  in  allusion  to  it:  "I  do  not  share 
the  scorn  with  which  national  traditions  are  too  often 
treated  and  am  of  the  opinion  that  with  more  research 
the  discovery  of  facts,  entirely  unknown,  would  throw 
much  light  on  many  historical  problems. ' ' 

Certainly  we  are  not  to  forget  the  distinction  between  a 
tradition  and  an  invention;  it  is  impossible  to  establish 
the  one,  and,  as  a  lie  can  never  be  made  the  truth,  it  is 
not  worth  repeating;  but  the  other  is  an  honest  relation, 
accepted  as  such  by  those  who  first  repeated  it,  and  which 
may  yet  be  sustained  by  evidence.  This  tradition  rela- 


Appendix  109 

ting  to  Madoc  had,  no  doubt,  some  actual  basis  of  truth, 
however  much  it  may  have  been  misapprehended;  the 
evidence  adduced  from  time  to  time  in  support  of  it  has 
been  believed  by  many,  and  is  curious  and  entertaining; 
the  tradition  itself  in  its  original  baldness  has  found  a  place 
in  historical  narrative  for  three  hundred  years;  for  each 
and  all  of  these  reasons  it  demands  brief  consideration. 
The  story  was  first  related  in  Caradoc's  "History  of 
Wales"  published  by  Mr.  David  Powell,  in  1584.  Cara 
doc's  history,  however,  came  down  only  to  1157,  and 
Humphrey  Llwyd  (Llyod)  who  translated  it,  added  the 
later  story  of  Madoc.  Llyod  received  it  from  Guttun 
Owen,  a  bard  who  about  the  year  1480,  copied  the  regis 
ters  of  current  events  which,  as  late  as  the  year  1270, 
were  kept  in  the  abbeys  of  Conway,  North  Wales,  and 
Strat  Flur,  South  Wales,  and  compared  together  every 
three  years  by  the  bards  belonging  to  the  two  houses. 
Another  bard,  Cynfrig  ab  Gronow,  referred  to  the  tradi 
tion  of  western  discovery  by  Madoc  about  the  same  time 
with  Owen;  and  another  allusion  to  it  is  claimed  in  the 
following  lines,  literally  translated,  written  three  years 
earlier  by  Sir  Meredyth  ab  Rhy: 

"On  a  Happy  Hour,  I,  on  the  water 
Of  manners  mild,  the  Huntsman  will  be, 
Madog  bold  of  pleasing  Countenance, 
Of  the  true  Lineage  of  Owen  Gwyned. 
I  coveted  not  Land,  my  ambition  was, 
Not  great  wealth,  but  the  seas." 

This  may  certainly  be  accepted  as  conclusive  evidence, 
at  least,  that  the  mild-mannered  and  good-looking  prince 
was  fond  of  the  sea;  but  it  is  difficult  to  find  anything 
else  in  it  that  can  be  supposed  to  refer  to  the  discovery 


1 10  Appendix 

of  America.  The  only  real  authorities  may  properly  be 
considered  as  reduced  to  two — the  bards  Guttun  Owen 
and  Cynfrig  ab  Gronow. 

The  story  is  briefly  this:  When  Owen  Gwynnedd, 
Prince  of  North  Wales,  was  gathered  to  his  fathers,  a 
strife  arose  among  his  sons  as  to  who  should  reign  in  his 
stead.  The  eldest  legitimate  son,  Edward,  was  put  aside 
as  unfit  to  govern  "because  of  the  maime  upon  his  face," 
he  was  known  as  "Edward  with  the  broken-nose,"  and 
the  government  was  seized  by  Howel  who  was  illegiti 
mate,  "a  base  son  begotten  of  an  Irish  woman."  But 
the  next  brother,  David,  refusing  allegiance  to  this  Howel, 
and  civil  war  followed.  At  length  the  usurper  was  killed 
in  battle,  and  the  rightful  heritage  established,  David 
holding  the  reins  of  government  as  regent  till  the  son  of 
Edward,  eldest  brother,  was  of  age.  In  this  contention, 
Madoc  took  no  part,  but  endeavored  to  escape  from  it; 
which  inasmuch  as  it  was  a  struggle  for  the  lineal  suc 
cession  of  his  family,  was  not  much  to  his  credit.  Leav 
ing  his  brothers  (about  1170)  to  fight  it  out  among  them, 
he  got  together  a  fleet  and  put  to  sea  in  search  of  adven 
tures.  He  sailed  westward,  leaving  Ireland  to  the  North, 
which  it  may  be  remarked,  is  nearly  the  only  thing  he 
could  do  in  sailing  from  Wales,  unless  he  laid  his  course 
northward  through  the  Irish  Sea.  But  at  length  he  came 
to  an  unknown  country,  where  the  natives  differed  from 
any  people  he  had  ever  seen  before,  and  all  things  were 
strange  and  new.  Seeing  that  this  land  was  pleasant 
and  fertile,  he  put  on  shore  and  left  behind  most  of  those 
in  his  ships  and  returned  to  Wales. 

Coming  among  his  friends  again,  after  so  eventful  a 
voyage,  he  told  them  of  the  fair  and  extensive  region  he 


Appendix  1 1 1 

had  found;  there,  he  assured  them,  they  could  live  in  peace 
and  plenty,  instead  of  cutting  each  other's  throats  for 
the  possession  of  a  rugged  district  of  rocks  and  moun 
tains.  The  advantages  he  offered  were  so  obvious,  or  his 
eloquence  so  persuasive  that  enough  determined  to  go 
with  him  to  fill  ten  ships.  There  is  no  account  of  their 
ever  having  returned  to  Wales;  but  on  the  contrary,  it 
is  said  "they  followed  the  manners  of  the  land  they  came 
to,  and  used  the  language  they  found  there, "—a  state 
ment  which,  if  true,  not  only  proves  that  they  did  not 
return,  but  that  some  intercourse  was  preserved  with 
their  native  land.  Their  numbers,  nevertheless,  must  have 
been  sufficient  to  have  formed  a  considerable  colony,  and 
if,  as  the  narrative  asserts,  the  new  country  "was  void 
of  inhabitants ' '  (meaning  probably  that  it  was  only  sparse 
ly  peopled)  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  they  could  have 
become  so  entirely  assimilated  to  the  savages  as  to  lose 
their  own  customs  and  their  own  tongue. 

Moreover,  if  such  were  the  fact,  it  destroys  all  other 
evidence  which  was  supposed  to  be  subsequently  found, 
of  the  existence  of  such  a  colony.  That  supposed  evi 
dence  is,  that  a  tribe  of  Indians  of  light  complexion  and 
speaking  the  old  British  language,  was  found  within  the 
present  limits  of  the  United  States  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  the  traces  of  such  a  people  were  still  evident 
at  a  quite  recent  period. 

The  earliest  testimony  on  this  point  is  a  letter  to  Dr. 
Thomas  Llyod  of  Pennsylvania,  and  by  him  transmitted 
to  his  brother,  Mr.  C.  H.  S.  Llyod  in  Wales.  The  letter 
purported  to  have  been  written  by  the  Rev.  Morgan  Jones 
and  was  dated  New  York,  March  10,  1685-6,  more  than 
half  a  century  before  its  publication  in  the  Magazine. 


I  12 


Appendix 


The  Rev.  Mr.  Jones  declares  that  in  the  year  1660,  twen 
ty-five  years  before  the  date  of  the  letter,  he  was  sent 
as  chaplain  of  an  expedition  from  Virginia  to  Port  Royal, 
South  Carolina,  where  he  remained  eight  months.  Suffer 
ing  much  from  want  of  food,  he  and  five  others  at  the 
end  of  that  time  started  to  return  to  Virginia  by  land. 
On  the  way  they  were  taken  prisoners  by  an  Indian  tribe, 
the  Tuscaroras,  and  condemned  to  die.  On  hearing  this 
sentence,  Mr.  Jones,  being  much  dejected,  exclaimed,  in 
the  British  (i.  e.  Welsh)  tongue,  "Have  I  escaped  so 
many  dangers,  and  must  I  now  be  knocked  on  the  head 
like  a  dog  ? ' '  Immediately  he  was  seized  around  the  waist 
by  a  War  Captain,  belonging  to  the  Doegs,  and  assured 
in  the  same  language  that  he  should  not  die.  He  was 
immediately  taken  to  the  "Emperor  of  the  Tuscaroras" 
and  with  his  five  companions,  ransomed.  The  Providen 
tial  Doeg  took  them  to  his  own  village,  where  they  were 
kindly  welcomed  and  hospitably  entertained.  For  four 
months,  Mr.  Jones  remained  among  these  Indians,  often 
conversing  with  them,  and  preaching  to  them  three  times 
a  week  in  the  British  tongue.  The  conclusion  is  that 
these  Indians  were  descendants  of  the  Welsh  colonists 
under  Madoc. 


RUTHIN  CASTLE 


HAWARDEN   CASTLE 


Appendix  1 1 3 


THE    ISLAND    OF  ATLANTIS  AND  THE    ABORIGINES 
OF  AMERICA 

[Bancroft's  Native  Races,  Volume  5,  Pages  125-132] 

Foremost  among  those  who  have  held  and  advocated 
this  opinion  stands  the  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg. 
This  distinguished  Americaniste  goes  farther  than  his  fel 
lows,  however,  in  that  he  attempts  to  prove  that  all  civi 
lization  originated  in  America,  or  the  Occident,  instead 
of  in  the  Orient,  as  has  always  been  supposed.  This  the 
ory  he  endeavors  to  substantiate  not  so  much  by  the 
Old  World  traditions  as  by  those  of  the  New  World,  us 
ing  as  his  principal  authority  an  anonymous  manuscript 
written  in  the  Nahua  language;  which  he  entitles  the  Co 
dex  Chimalpopoca.  This  work  purports  to  be  on  the  face 
of  it  a  "  History  of  the  Kingdoms  of  Calhuacan  and  Mex 
ico"  and  as  such  it  served  Brasseur  as  almost  his  sole 
authority  for  the  Toltec  period  of  his  Historic  des  nations 
Civilisees.  At  that  time  the  learned  Abbe  regarded  the 
Atlantis  theory,  at  least  so  far  as  it  referred  to  any  part 
of  America,  as  an  absurd  conjecture  resting  upon  no  au 
thentic  basis.  In  a  later  work,  however,  he  more  than 
retracts  this  assertion;  from  a  skeptic  he  is  suddenly 
transformed  into  a  most  devout  and  enthusiastic  believer, 
and  attempts  to  prove  by  a  most  elaborate  course  of 
reasoning  that  that  which  he  before  doubted  is  indubi 
tably  true.  The  cause  of  this  sudden  change  was  a  strange 
one.  As  by  constant  study,  he  became  more  profoundly 
learned  in  the  literature  of  ancient  America,  the  Abbe 
discovered  that  he  had  entirely  misinterpreted  the  Codex 


ii4  Appendix 

Chamalpopoca.  The  annals  recorded  so  plainly  upon  the 
face  of  the  mystic  pages  were  intended  only  for  the  un 
derstanding  of  the  vulgar;  the  stories  of  the  kings,  the 
history  of  the  kingdoms,  were  allegorical  and  not  to  be 
considered .  literally,  deep  below  the  surface  lay  the  true 
historic  record — hidden  from  all  save  the  priests  and  the 
wise  men  of  the  West — of  the  mighty  cataclysm  which 
submerged  the  cradle  of  all  civilization.  Excepting  a 
dozen,  perhaps  of  the  kings  who  preceded  Montezuma, 
it  is  not  a  history  of  men,  but  of  American  nature,  that 
must  be  sought  for  in  the  Mexican  manuscripts  and  paint 
ings.  The  Toltecs,  so  long  regarded  as  an  ancient  civi 
lized  race,  destroyed  in  the  Eleventh  century  by  their 
enemies,  are  really  telluric  forces,  agents  of  subterranean 
fire,  the  veritable  smiths  of  Orcus  and  of  Lemnos,  of  which 
Tollan  was  the  symbol,  the  true  masters  of  civilization 
and  art,  who  by  the  mighty  convulsions  which  they  caused 
communicated  to  men  a  knowledge  of  minerals. 

I  know  of  no  man  better  qualified  than  was  Brasseur 
de  Bourbourg  to  penetrate  the  obscurity  of  American 
primitive  history.  His  familiarity  with  the  Nahua  and 
Central  American  languages,  his  indefatigable  industry 
and  general  erudition,  rendered  him  eminently  fit  for  such 
a  task,  and  every  word  written  by  such  a  man  on  such 
a  subject  is  entitled  to  respectful  consideration.  Never 
theless,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  Abbe  was  often 
rapt  away  from  the  truth  by  excess  of  enthusiasm,  and 
the  reader  of  his  wild  and  fanciful  speculations  cannot 
but  regret  that  he  has  not  the  opportunity  or  ability  to 
intelligently  criticise  by  comparison  the  French  savant's 
interpretation  of  the  original  documents.  At  all  events, 
it  is  certain  that  he  honestly  believed  in  the  truth  of  his 


Appendix  1 1 5 

own  discovery,  for  when  he  admitted  that,  in  the  light 
of  his  better  knowledge,  the  Toltec  history,  as  recorded 
in  the  Codex  Chimalpopoca,  was  an  allegory,  that  no 
such  people  as  the  Toltecs  ever  existed,  in  fact, — and 
thereby  rendered  valueless  his  own  history  of  the  Toltec 
period,  he  made  a  sacrifice  of  labor,  unique,  I  think,  in 
the  annals  of  literature. 

Brasseur's  theory  supposes  that  the  continent  of  Amer 
ica  occupied  originally  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  Car- 
ribean  Sea,  and  extended  in  the  form  of  a  peninsula  so 
far  across  the  Atlantic  that  the  Canary  Islands  may  have 
formed  part  of  it.  All  this  extended  portion  of  the  con 
tinent  was  many  ages  ago  engulfed  by  a  tremendous  con 
vulsion  of  nature,  of  which  traditions  and  written  records 
have  been  preserved  by  many  American  peoples.  Yuca 
tan,  Honduras,  and  Guatemala  were  also  submerged,  but 
the  continent  subsequently  rose  sufficiently  to  rescue  them 
from  the  ocean.  The  testimony  of  many  modern  men  of 
science  tends  to  show  that  there  existed  at  one  time  a 
vast  extent  of  dry  land  between  Europe  and  America. 

******  * 

It  only  remains  now  to  speak  of  the  theory  which  as 
cribes  an  autochthonic  origin  to  the  Americans.  The  time 
is  not  long  past  when  such  a  supposition  would  have 
been  regarded  as  impious,  and  even  at  this  day  its  advo 
cates  may  expect  discouragement  if  not  rebuke  from  cer 
tain  quarters.  It  is  nevertheless  an  opinion  worthy  of 
the  gravest  consideration,  and  one  which,  if  we  may 
judge  by  the  recent  results  of  scientific  investigation,  may 
eventually  prove  to  be  scientifically  correct.  In  the  pre 
ceding  pages,  it  will  have  been  remarked  that  no  theory  of 
a  foreign  origin  has  been  proven,  or  even  fairly  sustained. 


n6  Appendix 

The  particulars  in  which  the  Americans  are  shown  to 
resemble  any  given  people  of  the  Old  World  are  insignifi 
cant  in  number  and  importance  when  compared  with  the 
particulars  in  which  they  do  not  resemble  that  people. 
As  I  have  remarked  elsewhere,  it  is  not  impossible 
that  stray  ships  of  many  nations  have  at  various  times 
and  in  various  places  been  cast  upon  the  American  coast, 
or  even  that  adventurous  spirits,  who  were  familiar  with 
the  old-time  stories  of  a  western  land,  may  have  design 
edly  sailed  westward  until  they  reached  America,  and 
have  never  returned  to  tell  the  tale.  The  result  of  such 
desultory  visits  would  be  exactly  what  has  been  noticed, 
but  erroneously  attributed  to  immigration  en  masse.  The 
strangers,  were  their  lives  spared,  would  settle  among  the 
people,  and  impart  their  ideas  and  knowledge  to  them. 
The  knowledge  would  not  take  any  very  definite  shape 
or  have  any  very  decided  effect,  for  the  reason  that  the 
sailors  and  adventurers  who  would  be  likely  to  land  in 
America  under  such  circumstances  would  not  be  thorough 
ly  versed  in  the  arts  or  sciences;  still  they  would  know 
many  things  that  were  unknown  to  their  captors,  or  hosts, 
and  would  doubtless  be  able  to  suggest  many  improve 
ments.  This,  then  would  account  for  many  Old  World 
ideas  and  customs  that  have  been  detected  here  and  there 
in  America,  while  at  the  same  time  the  difficulty  which 
arises  from  the  fact  that  the  resemblances,  though  strik 
ing  are  yet  very  few,  would  be  satisfactorily  avoided. 
The  foreigners,  if  adopted  by  the  people  they  fell  among, 
would  of  course  marry  women  of  the  country  and  beget 
children,  but  it  cannot  be  expected  that  the  physical  pe 
culiarities  so  transmitted  would  be  perceptible  after  a  gen 
eration  or  two  of  re-marrying  with  the  aboriginal  stock. 


Appendix  1 1 7 

At  the  same  time,  I  think  it  just  as  probable  that  the 
analogies  referred  to  are  mere  coincidences,  such  as  might 
be  found  among  any  civilized  or  semi-civilized  people  of 
the  earth.  It  may  be  argued  that  the  various  American 
tribes  and  nations  differ  so  materially  from  each  other  as 
to  render  it  extremely  improbable  that  they  are  derived 
from  one  original  stock,  but,  however  this  may  be,  the 
difference  can  scarcely  be  greater  than  that  which  appar 
ently  exists  between  many  of  the  Aryan  branches. 

Hence  it  is  that  many  not  unreasonably  assume  that 
the  Americans  are  autochthons  until  there  is  some  good 
ground  for  believing  them  to  be  of  exotic  origin.  To  ex 
press  belief,  however,  in  a  theory  incapable  of  proof  ap 
pears  to  me  idle.  Indeed,  such  belief  is  not  belief;  it  is 
merely  acquiescing  in  or  accepting  a  hypothesis  or  tradi 
tion  until  the  contrary  is  proved.  No  one  at  the  present 
day  can  tell  the  origin  of  the  Americans;  they  may  have 
come  from  any  one,  or  from  all  the  hypothetical  sources 
enumerated  in  the  foregoing  pages,  and  here  the  question 
must  rest  until  we  have  more  light  upon  the  subject. 

VI 

LETTER  OF  GEORGE  CHROCHAN  TO  GOVERNOR  DINWIDDIE 

[Burder'a  Welch  Indians  in  America,  Pages  11-13] 

Winchefter,  Auguft  24,    1753. 
May  It  Please  Your  Honor: 

Laft  year  I  underftood,  by  Col.  Lomax,  that  your 
Honour  would  be  glad  to  have  fome  information  of  a  na 
tion  of  people  fettled  to  the  weft  on  a  large  river  that 
runs  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  commonly  called  the  Welch 


n8  Appendix 

Indians.  As  I  had  an  opportunity  of  gathering  fome  ac 
count  of  thofe  people  I  make  bold,  at  the  inftance  of  Col. 
Creflup,  to  fend  you  the  following  accounts.  As  I  for 
merly  had  an  opportunity  of  being  acquainted  with  fev- 
eral  French  Traders,  and  particularly  with  one  that  was 
bred  up  from  his  infancy  amongft  the  Weftern  Indians, 
on  the  weft  side  of  the  lake  Erie,  he  informed  me,  that 
the  firft  intelligence  the  French  had  of  them  was  by  fome 
Indians  fettled  at  the  back  of  New  Spain;  who,  in  their 
way  home,  happened  to  lofe  themf elves,  and  fell  down 
on  this  fettlement  of  people  which  they  took  to  be  French, 
by  their  talking  very  quick;  fo,  on  their  return  to  Canada, 
they  informed  the  Governor,  that  there  was  a  large  fettle 
ment  of  French  on  a  river  that  ran  to  the  fun's  fetting; 
that  they  were  no  Indians,  although  they  lived  within 
themf  elves  as  Indians;  for  they  could  not  perceive  that 
they  traded  with  any  people  or  had  any  trade  to  fea,  for 
they  had  no  boats  or  fhips  as  they  could  fee  and  though 
they  had  guns  amongft  them,  yet  they  were  fo  old,  and 
fo  much  out  of  order,  that  they  made  no  ufe  of  them, 
but  hunted  with  their  bows  and  arrows  for  the  fupport 
of  their  families. 

On  this  account,  the  Governor  of  Canada  determined 
to  fend  a  party  to  difcover  whether  they  were  French 
or  not,  and  had  300  men  raifed  for  that  purpofe.  But 
when  they  were  ready  to  go,  the  Indians  would  not  go 
with  them,  but  told  the  Governor  that  if  he  fent  but  a 
few  men,  they  would  go  and  fhew  them  the  country;  on 
which  the  Governor  fent  three  young  priefts,  who  dreffed 
themfelves  in  Indian  dreffes  and  went  with  thofe  Indians 
to  the  place  where  thefe  people  were  fettled,  and  found 
them  to  be  Welch.  They  brought  fome  old  Welch  Bibles 


Appendix  1 i 9 

to  fatisfy  the  Governor  that  they  were  there,  and  they 
told  the  Governor  that  thefe  people  had  a  great  averfion 
to  the  French;  for  they  found  by  them,  that  they  had 
been  at  firft  fettled  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Miffiffippi, 
but  had  been  almoft  cut  off  by  the  French  there.  So 
that  a  fmall  remnant  of  them  efcaped  back  to  where  they 
were  then  fettled,  but  had  fince  become  a  numerous  peo 
ple.  The  Governor  of  Canada,  on  this  account,  deter 
mined  to  raife  an  army  of  French  Indians  to  go  and  cut 
them  off;  but  as  the  French  have  been  embarraffed  in  war 
with  feveral  other  nations  nearer  home,  I  believe  they 
have  laid  that  project  afide.  The  man  who  furnifhed  me 
with  this  account  told  me,  that  the  meffengers,  who  went 
to  make  this  difcovery,  were  gone  fixteen  months  before 
they  returned  to  Canada,  fo  that  thofe  people  muft  live 
at  a  great  diftance  from  thence  due  weft.  This  is  the 
moft  particular  account  I  ever  could  get  of  thofe  people 
as  yet.  I  am, 

Your  Honour's 

Moft  Obedient  Humble  Servant 
(Signed)       GEORGE  CHROCHAN. 

N.  B.  Governor  Dinwiddie  agreed  with  three  or 
four  of  the  back  traders  to  go  in  quest  of  the  Welch 
Indians,  and  promifed  to  give  them  500  for  that  purpofe; 
but  he  was  recalled  before  they  could  fet  out  on  that 
expedition. 


I2O 


Appendix 


VII 
SPEECH  OF  CARACTACUS    BEFORE  THE    EMPEROR    CLAUDIUS 

[Annals  of  Tacitus,  Book  12,  Chapter  36-37] 

Caractacus  himself  sought  the  protection  of  Cartisman- 
.dua  queen  of  the  Brigantes,  but  as  is  generally  the  case, 
adversity  can  find  no  sure  refuge;  he  was  delivered  up 
in  chains  to  the  conquerors,  in  the  ninth  year  after  the 
commencement  of  the  war  in  Britain.  Whence  his  renown 
overpassing  the  limits  of  the  isles,  spread  over  the  neigh 
boring  provinces,  and  became  celebrated  even  in  Italy, 
where  all  longed  to  behold  the  man  who,  for  so  many 
years,  had  defied  the  Roman  arms;  not  even  at  Rome 
was  the  name  of  Caractacus  unassociated  with  fame;  and 
the  emperor  while  exalting  his  own  glory,  added  to  that 
of  the  vanquished.  For  the  people  were  summoned  to 
see  him,  as  a  rare  spectacle;  and  the  praetorian  bands 
stood  under  arms  in  the  field  before  their  camp.  Then 
first  the  servants  and  followers  of  the  British  king  moved 
in  procession,  and  the  trappings  and  collars,  and  all  he 
had  taken  in  wars  with  his  neighbors,  were  borne  along; 
next  came  his  brothers,  his  wife  and  daughter;  and  last 
himself,  attracting  the  gaze  of  all.  All  the  rest  descended 
to  humiliating  supplications  under  the  impulse  of  fear; 
but  Caractacus,  who  seemed  not  to  solicit  compassion 
either  by  dejected  looks  or  pitiful  expressions,  as  soon  as 
he  was  placed  before  the  imperial  tribunal,  thus  spoke: 

"  If  my  moderation  in  prosperity  had  been  as  great  as 
my  lineage  was  noble  and  my  successes  brilliant,  I  should 
have  entered  this  city  as  a  friend,  rather  than  as  a  cap 
tive;  nor  would  you  then  have  disdained  to  receive  a 


WELSH   POOL  VILLAGE 


POWIS   CASTLE 


Appendix  1 2 1 

prince  descended  from  illustrious  ancestors,  and  the  ruler 
of  many  nations,  into  terms  of  alliance.  My  present  lot, 
as  it  is  to  me  ignominious  and  degrading,  so  it  is  a  mat 
ter  of  glory  and  triumph  to  you.  I  had  men  and  arms, 
horses  and  riches;  where  is  the  wonder  if  I  was  unwilling 
to  part  with  them?  If  you  Romans  aim  at  extending 
your  dominion  over  all  mankind,  it  does  not  follow  that 
all  men  should  take  the  yoke  upon  them.  Had  I  at  once 
been  delivered  into  your  hands  a  prisoner  at  discretion, 
neither  had  my  lot  nor  your  glory  been  thus  signal.  If 
you  inflict  punishment  upon  me,  the  affair  will  sink  into 
oblivion;  but  if  you  preserve  my  life,  I  shall  form  an  im 
perishable  record  of  your  clemency." 

Claudius  upon  this  pardoned  him,  with  his  wife  and 
his  brothers.  The  prisoners  released  from  their  chains, 
did  homage  to  Agrippa  also,  who  at  a  short  distance  oc 
cupied  another  throne,  in  full  view  of  the  assembly  with 
the  same  expressions  of  praise  and  gratitude  as  they  had 
employed  to  the  emperor.  A  spectacle  this,  strange  and 
unauthorized  by  the  customs  of  our  ancestors,  for  a  wo 
man  to  preside  over  the  Roman  ensigns.  She  herself, 
claimed  to  be  a  partner  in  the  empire  which  her  ances 
tors  had  acquired. 


122 


Appendix 


VIII 

DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  WELSH  ACCORDING  TO  THE 
HISTORIAN  GIRALDUS 

[Knight's  Popular  History  of  England,  Volume  1,  Pages  278-9] 

Light  and  active,  hardy  rather  than  strong,  the  nation 
universally  is  trained  to  arms.  Flesh  is  consumed  by  the 
people  more  than  bread  with  milk,  cheese  and  butter. 
With  this  pastoral  character,  having  little  agriculture,  they 
are  always  ready  for  war;  and  they  have  neither  com 
merce  nor  manufactures.  They  fish  with  the  little  wicker 
boats  which  they  carry  to  their  rivers.  Lightly  armed 
with  small  breastplates,  helmets  and  shields,  they  attack 
their  mailed  foes  with  lance  and  arrow.  They  have  some 
cavalry,  but  the  marshy  nature  of  the  soil  compels  the 
greater  number  to  fight  on  foot.  Abstemious  both  in 
food  and  drink,  frugal  and  capable  of  bearing  great  pri 
vations,  they  watch  their  enemies  through  the  cold  and 
stormy  nights,  always  bent  upon  defence  or  plunder. 
Their  hospitality  is  universal;  for  the  houses  of  all  are 
common  to  all.  The  conversation  of  the  young  women, 
and  the  music  of  the  harp,  give  a  charm  to  their  humble 
fare;  and  no  jealousy  interferes  with  the  freedom  with 
which  a  stranger  is  welcomed  by  the  females  of  the  house 
hold.  When  the  evening  meal  is  finished,  a  bed  of  rushes 
is  placed  in  the  side  of  the  room,  and  all  without  dis 
tinction  lie  down  to  sleep.  The  men  and  women  cut 
their  hair  close  round  to  the  ears  and  eyes;  and  the  men 
shave  all  their  beard  except  their  whiskers.  Of  their 
white  teeth,  they  are  particularly  careful.  They  are  of 
an  acute  intellect,  and  excel  in  whatever  studies  they  pur- 


Appendix  123 

sue.  They  have  three  musical  instruments,  the  harp,  the 
pipe,  and  the  crowd;  and  their  performances  are  executed 
with  such  celerity  and  delicacy  of  modulation,  that  they 
produce  a  perfect  consonance  from  the  rapidity  of  seem 
ingly  discordant  touches.  Their  bards,  in  their  rhymed 
songs,  and  their  orators,  in  their  set  speeches,  make  use 
of  alliteration  in  preference  to  all  other  ornament.  In 
their  musical  concerts  they  do  not  sing  in  unison,  but  in 
many  different  parts;  and  it  is  unusual  to  hear  a  simple 
melody  well  sung.  The  heads  of  families  think  it  is  their 
duty  to  amuse  their  guests  by  their  facetiousness.  The 
highest,  as  well  as  the  lowest  of  the  people,  have  a  re 
markable  boldness  and  confidence  in  speaking  and  answer 
ing;  and  their  natural  warmth  of  temper  is  distinguished 
from  the  English  coldness  of  disposition.  They  have 
many  soothsayers  among  them.  Noble  birth,  and  gener 
ous  descent,,  they  esteem  above  all  things.  Even  the 
common  people  retain  genealogy.  They  revenge  with  ve 
hemence  any  injuries  which  may  tend  to  the  disgrace  of 
their  blood,  whether  an  ancient  or  a  recent  affront.  They 
are  universally  devout,  and  they  show  a  greater  respect 
than  other  nations  to  churches  and  ecclesiastical  persons, 
and  especially  revere  relics  of  saints.  Giraldus,  having  de 
scribed  at  much  length  the  particulars  which  redound  to 
the  credit  of  the  British  nation  (for  so  he  calls  the  Welch) 
then  proceeds  to  those  things  which  pass  the  line  of  en 
comium.  The  people,  he  says,  are  inconstant,  and  regard 
less  of  any  covenant.  They  commit  acts  of  plunder,  not 
only  against  foreigners,  and  hostile  nations,  but  against 
their  own  countrymen.  Bold  in  their  warlike  onsets, 
they  cannot  bear  a  repulse,  and  trust  to  flight  for  safety; 
but  defeated  one  day,  they  are  ready  to  resume  the 


124  Appendix 

conflict  on  the  next.  Their  ancient  national  custom  of  di 
viding  property  amongst  all  the  brothers  of  a  house  leads 
to  perpetual  contests  for  possessions,  and  frequent  fratri 
cides.  They  constantly  intermarry  within  the  forbidden 
degrees,  uniting  themselves  to  their  own  people,  presum 
ing  on  their  own  superiority  of  blood  and  family;  and 
they  rarely  marry  without  previous  cohabitation.  Their 
churches  have  almost  as  many  parties  and  parsons  as 
there  are  principal  men  in  the  parish;  the  sons  after  the 
decease  of  the  father,  succeed  to  the  ecclesiastical  bene 
fices,  not  by  election,  but  by  assumed  hereditary  right. 
Finally,  in  setting  forth  how  this  people  is  to  be  subdued, 
and  preserved  to  the  English  crown,  Giraldus  says  that, 
from  the  pride  and  obstinacy  of  their  dispositions,  they 
will  not,  like  other  nations,  subject  themselves  to  the 
dominion  of  one  lord  and  king.  How  long  a  time  it  was 
before  that  subjection  was  even  imperfectly  accomplished, 
will  be  seen  as  we  proceed  in  our  narrative. 


THE    TRADITION    OF    THE    WELSH    IN    AMERICA     IN    THE 

TWELFTH    CENTURY    SOMETHING    MORE 

THAN   MERE   CONJECTURE 

[The  Universal  History,  Volume  20,  Pages  193-4] 

That  the  Welch  contributed  towards  the  peopling  of 
America,  is  intimated  by  fome  good  authors;  and  ought 
to  be  confidered  as  a  notion  fupporting  more  than  bare 
conjectures.  Powell,  in  his  hiftory  of  Wales,  informs  us, 
that  a  war  happening  in  that  country  for  the  fuccefrlon, 
upon  the  death  of  their  prince  Owen  Guinneth,  A.  D. 


Appendix  125 

1170,  and  a  baftard  having  carried  it  from  his  lawful 
fons,  one  of  the  latter,  named  Madoc,  put  to  sea  for  new 
difcoveries;  and  sailing  weft  from  Spain,  he  dif covered  a 
new  world  of  wonderful  beauty  and  fertility.  But  finding 
this  uninhabited,  upon  his  return,  he  carried  thither  a 
great  number  of  people  from  Wales.  To  this  delightful 
country  he  made  three  voyages,  according  to  Hakluyt. 
The  places  he  dif  covered  feem  to  be  Virginia,  New  Eng 
land,  and  the  adjacent  countries.  In  confirmation  of 
this,  Peter  Martyr  fays,  that  the  natives  of  Virginia  and 
Guatimala,  celebrated  the  memory  of  one  Madoc,  as  a 
great  and  ancient  hero;  and  hence  it  came  to  pafs,  that 
modern  travelers  have  found  feveral  old  Britifh  words 
among  the  inhabitants  of  North  America.  The  fame 
author  mentions  the  words  Matoc-Zunga  and  Mat-Inga, 
as  being  in  ufe  among  the  Guatimallians,  in  which  there 
is  a  plain  allufion  to  Madoc,  and  that  with  the  d  softened 
into  t,  according  to  the  Welch  manner  of  pronunciation. 
Nay,  Bifhop  Nicolfon  feems  to  believe,  that  the  Welch 
language  makes  a  confiderable  part  of  feveral  of  the  Amer 
ican  tongues.  According  to  a  famous  Britifh  antiquary, 
the  Spaniards  borrowed  their  double  L  (LL)  from  the 
people  of  Mexico,  who  received  it  from  the  Welch,  and 
the  Dutch  brought  a  bird  with  a  white  head  from  the 
Streights  of  Magellan  called  by  the  natives  Penguin ;  which 
word,  in  the  old  British,  fignifies  White-head,  and  there 
fore  feems  originally  to  have  come  from  Wales.  This 
muft  be  allowed  an  additional  argument,  to  omit  others 
that  occur,  in  favor  of  Madoc 's  three  American  expedi 
tions. 


i26  Appendix 


REVEREND  JOHN  WILLIAMS,  LL.  D. 

John  Williams,  an  eminent  dissenting  minister  and 
scholar,  was  born  in  Wales  in  1726  and  died  in  1798.  He 
was  the  author  of  several  learned  works,  and  among  them 
"An  Inquiry  into  the  Truth  of  the  Tradition  concerning 
the  Difcovery  of  America  by  Prince  Madoc  about  the 
Year  1170,"  which  was  published  in  London  in  1791. 
The  next  year,  1792,  he  published  a  second  work  entitled 
"Further  Observations"  on  the  same  subject.  I  have 
had  occasion  to  refer  to  Doctor  Williams  in  the  text,  and 
deeming  him  the  best  authority  in  favor  of  the  Welsh 
tradition  and  entitled  to  further  notice,  I  shall  make  the 
following  additional  extracts  from  both  of  his  works: 


THE    WELSH   A  MARITIME   PEOPLE 

[From  The  Inquiry,  etc.,  Pages  59-62] 

The  reafon  for  which  he  (Caefar)  invaded  this  ifland 
was,  as  he  fays,  becaufe  the  Britons  affifted  the  Gauls  by 
Land  and  Sea.  Their  Naval  Power  must  have  been  very 
confiderable,  when  Vincula  dare  Oceano,  and  Britannos 
fubjugare,  were  convertible  Terms.  Had  not  the  Britifh 
Naval  Power  been  then  formidable,  this  would  not  have 
been  faid. 

Their  maritime  force,  it  is  true,  was  much  weakened 
by  Csefar;  yet  in  no  long  time  it  feems  to  have  been  con- 
fiderably  reftored,  as  appears  from  the  conduct  of  later 
Emperors.  Had  their  navy,  as  hath  been  aflerted  by 
fome  writers,  confifted  only  of  fmall  fifhing  Boats,  now 


Appendix  127 

in  the  Principality  called  Coracles,  they  could  not  have 
afforded  fuch  affiftance  to  the  Gauls,  as  to  bring  upon 
them  the  Roman  power.  As  to  unfkilfulnefs,  it  doth  not 
appear  from  Hiftory,  that  this,  with  truth,  could  be  faid 
of  them. 

I  know  not  upon  what  authority,  it  is  faid  by  his  Lord- 
fhip  that  the  Britons  were  lefs  expert  Mariners  than  any 
other  in  Europe,  for  they  feem  to  have  had  connections 
in  the  way  of  Commerce  with  very  diftant  nations,  before 
Julius  Caefar;  indeed  a  very  confiderable  and  extenfive 
trade  with  Phoenicians,  and  others. 

For  thefe  reafons,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  the 
Naval  power  of  the  Britons  was  confiderable  before  the 
coming  of  the  Romans.  As  to  fucceeding  Times,  when 
the  Britons  were  driven  into  Wales,  a  Country  with  an 
extenfive  Sea  Coaft,  they  had  little  to  fubfift  upon,  but 
a  f canty  Agriculture,  and  rich  Fifheries;  fo  that  very  great 
Numbers  of  them  were  compelled  by  necefhty  to  purfue 
a  Seafaring  Life. 

The  ftrongeft  objection  to  the  Truth  of  this  event, 
which  is  urged  by  his  Lordfhip  and  by  others,  is  the  great 
Improbability  that  fuch  a  voyage  could  be  performed 
without  the  affiftance  of  the  Mariner's  Compafs,  not  then 
dif covered.  This  difcovery  was  made  about  the  year 
1300;  others  fay,  by  Behaim  above  mentioned,  about  100 
Years  later.  In  anfwer  to  this  Objection,  it  may  be 
obferved  that  previoufly  to  Madog's  Voyage,  we  read 
of  feveral  others,  which  appear  to  me  fully  as  im 
probable.  It  is  generally  underftood  that  the  Phoenicians, 
Grecians,  &c.,  were  acquainted  with,  and  failed  to 
Britain,  and  other  countries,  for  Tin  and  Lead,  and 
unto  the  Baltic  Sea  for  Amber;  voyages  which  feem  as 


128  Appendix 

difficult  as  that  of  Madog's  and  a  longer  Navigation. 
It  was  hardly  poffible  for  the  Britons  not  to  learn  how 
to  navigate  Ships,  when  they  faw  how  it  was  done  by 
others. 

The  return  of  our  Prince  to  North  Wales,  and  back 
again  to  his  colony,  is  the  moft  difficult  to  be  accounted 
for,  in  the  whole  story.  However,  I  apprehend,  that  this 
is  not  altogether  impoffible. 

Let  it  be  obferved  that  the  fpace  of  Time  in  which 
thefe  voyages  of  Madog's  were  performed  is  no  where 
mentioned.  They  might  have  taken  up  twenty  years  or 
more.  Madog,  on  his  return  to  Wales,  might  have  failed 
Northward  by  the  American  Coaft,  till  he  came  to  a  fit- 
uation  where  the  light  of  the  sun  at  noon  was  the  fame, 
at  the  Seafon,  as  it  was  in  his  Native  country,  and  then 
failing  Eaftward  (the  Polar  Star,  long  before  obferved 
would  prevent  his  failing  on  a  wrong  point)  he  might 
fafely  return  to  Britain.  The  experiences  he  derived  from 
his  firft  Voyage  would  enable  him  to  join  his  Companions 
whom  he  had  left  behind. 

That  there  are  ftrong  currents  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
is  well  known.  On  his  return  to  North  Wales,  Madog 
might  fall  into  that  current,  which  it  is  faid,  runs  from 
the  Weft  Indian  Iflands  Northward  to  Cape  Sable  in 
Nova  Scotia,  where  interrupted  by  the  land,  it  runs 
Eaftward  towards  Britain. 

There  is  a  Tradition  that  a  Captain  of  a  Ship  dined 
at  Bofton,  in  New  England,  on  a  Sunday,  and  on  the 
following  Sunday  dined  at  his  own  Houfe  in  Penzance, 
Cornwall.  This  is  by  no  means  impoffible,  for  with 
favourable  Winds  and  ftrong  currents,  a  ship  may  run 
above  14  miles  in  an  Hour. 


CAERNARVON  VILLAGE 


CAERNARVON   CASTLE 


Appendix  129 

The  late  celebrated  Dr.  Benjamin  Franklin  of  Phila 
delphia,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  well  known  in  the  literary 
world,  which  I  heard  read,  faid  that  he  was  fully  con 
vinced  that  there  was  fuch  a  current  from  Weft  to  Eaft, 
and  that  he  did  not  think  the  Captain's  remarkable 
expedition  impoffible,  nor  even,  altogether,  improbable. 

XI 

CULTURE  OF  THE  EARLY  WELSH 

[From  The  Enquiry,  etc.,  Pages  78-80] 

From  the  earlieft  accounts  we  have  of  the  ancient 
Britons  they  feem  to  have  been  the  beft  informed,  and 
moft  enlightened  of  all  the  northern  Nations  in  Europe. 
The  fpeech  of  Caractacus  addreffed  to  the  Emperor  Clau 
dius,  and  prefer ved  by  Tacitus,  is  a  proof  that  good  nat 
ural  Senfe  and  Literature,  fuch  as  it  was  in  that  age,  in 
fome  meafure,  flourifhed  in  Britain. 

We  have  alfo  in  Caefar  feveral  paffages  favourable  to 
Britifh  learning;  I  fee  no  reafon,  therefore,  why  Britifh 
Writers  fhould  be  treated  with  contempt. 

The  Scotch  writers,  efpecially  of  late  years,  have 
ftrained  every  nerve  to  eftablish  the  reputation  of  their 
ancient  Authors.  Oman  and  Fingal  are  oftentatioufly 
held  out,  as  inftances  of  fuperior  merit  and  excellence; 
but  the  poor  Britons  are  treated  with  difdain;  as  having 
no  merit  for  imagination,  or  original  Compofition. 

Taliefsyn,  a  Welfh  bard,  who,  as  already  obferved, 
flourifhed  about  the  middle  of  the  6th  century,  and  who 
by  way  of  eminence  was  called  Pen  Beirrd  y  Gorllewin, 
"Head  of  the  Weftern  bards,"  fome  of  whofe  works  are 


130  Appendix 

come  down  to  us;  particularly,  an  ode,  in  Welch  tranf- 
lated  into  Latin  fapphic  Verfe,  by  David  Jones,  Vicar  of 
Llanfair,  DufTryn  Clwyd,  Denbighfhire ;  in  1580,  Owen 
Cyfeiliog,  and  Gwalchmai  in  the  i2th  century;  and  many 
others,  at  different  periods  of  diftinguifhed  merit,  have 
appeared  in  Wales,  some  of  whom  have  plainly  alluded 
to  Madogs'  Adventures.  For  the  Names,  Times,  and  the 
Works  of  these  bards,  I  refer  to  Mr.  Evans'  specimens 
of  the  ancient  Welch  bards,  1764.  To  Sir  Thomas  Her 
bert's  Travels  and  to  Mr.  Warrington's  Hiftory  of  Wales, 
p.  307,  Edit.  1788. 

XII 

INFORMATION  IMPARTED  BY  GENERAL  BOWLES, 
A  CHEROKEE   CHIEF 

From  Further  Observations,  etc.,  Pages  3-5 

My  worthy  and  ingenious  friends,  Mr.  William  Owen 
and  Mr.  Edward  Williams,  for  feveral  months  paft,  have 
fent  various  particulars  to  the  editor  of  the  Gentleman's 
Magazine,  relative  to  the  Welch  Indians. 

Mr.  Owen  had  two  interviews  with  General  Bowles 
and  a  Mr.  Price  the  Cherokee  chiefs,  who  lately  left  Lon 
don;  an  account  of  which  he  obligingly  communicated  to 
me. 

When  Mr.  Owen  told  the  General  the  occafion  of  his 
waiting  upon  him  that  it  was  to  enquire  whether  he  knew 
anything  of  a  tribe  of  Welch  Indians'  he  replied  that  he 
well  did,  and  that  they  are  called,  "the  Padoucas,  or 
White  Indians."  (Mr.  Owen,  previous  to  his  interview 
with  Mr.  Bowles,  thought  that  the  Padoucas  were  the 
Welsh  tribe.)  They  are  called  "The  White  Indians"  on 


Appendix  1 3 1 

account  of  their  complexions.  When  a  map  was  laid  be 
fore  him,  on  which  that  name  was  infcribed,  he  faid, 
thefe  are  the  people,  and  shewed  the  limits  of  their  coun 
try.  He  faid  that  in  general  they  were  called  the  White 
Padoucas,  but  thofe  who  live  in  the  northern  parts  of 
their  country,  are  called  the  "Black  Padoucas."  On  be 
ing  afked  the  reafon,  he  replied  "becaufe  they  are  a  mix 
ture  of  the  White  Padoucas,  and  other  Indians ;  and  there 
fore  are  of  a  darker  complexion.  The  White  Padoucas 
are  as  you  are  (Mr.  Owens  is  a  Welchman)  having  fome 
of  them  f andy ,  fome  red,  and  fome  black  hair. ' '  He  alfo 
faid  that  they  are  very  numerous,  and  one  of  the  moft 
warlike  people  on  that  Continent.  When  he  was  informed 
of  the  time  and  circumftances  of  Madog's  Navigation,  he 
faid  "They  muft  have  been  as  early  as  that  period,  oth- 
erwife  they  could  not  have  increafed  to  be  fo  numerous 
a  people."  The  General  faid  that  he  had  travelled  their 
fouthern  boundaries  from  one  fide  to  the  other,  but  that 
he  had  never  entered  into  their  country.  He  was  of  opin 
ion  that  they  firft  came  to  the  Floridas,  or  about  the 
mouths  of  the  Miffiffippi ;  and  finding  that  a  low  and  rather 
a  bad  country,  they  pufhed  forward  by  degrees  till  they 
came  to,  and  fettled  in  the  country  where  they  now  live 
in,  it  being  a  high  and  hilly  country,  but  as  fertile  and 
delightful  a  fpot  as  any  in  the  world. 

When  he  was  afked  the  reafon,  why  he  thought  them 
to  be  Welfh  he  replied,  "A  Welchman  was  with  me  at 
home  for  fome  time,  who  had  been  a  Prifoner  among 
the  Spaniards,  and  worked  in  the  Mines  of  Mexico;  and 
by  fome  means,  he  contrived  to  efcape,  got  into  the  wilds, 
and  made  his  way  acrofs  the  Continent,  and  eventually 
paffed  through  the  midft  of  the  Padoucas,  and  at  once 


i32  Appendix 

found  himfelf  with  a  people  with  whom  he  could  converfe 
and  he  ftaid  there  fome  time."  Amongft  other  particu 
lars  he  told  me,  "that  they  had  feveral  books,  which 
were  moft  religioufly  preferved  in  fkins,  and  were  con- 
fidered  by  them  as  myfteries.  Thefe  they  believed  gave 
an  account  from  whence  they  came.  Thefe  people  told 
the  Welchman  that  they  had  not  feen  a  White  man  like 
themfelves,  who  was  a  stranger,  for  a  long  time."  This 
was  the  fubftance  of  General  Bowies'  information. 


XIII 

WHAT  MORGAN  JONES   KNEW   OF  THE  WELSH  INDIANS 

[From  Further  Observations,  etc.,  Pages  10-11] 

Mr.  Jones  alfo  fays  that  about  the  Year  1750,  his 
father  and  family  went  to  Penfylvania,  where  he  met 
with  feveral  Perfons  whom  he  knew  in  Wales;  one  in  par 
ticular,  with  whom  he  had  been  intimate.  This  perfon 
had  formerly  lived  in  Penfylvania,  but  then  lived  in  North 
Carolina.  Upon  his  return  to  Penfylvania,  the  following 
year,  to  fettle  his  affairs  they  met  a  fecond  fate.  Mr. 
Jones'  friend  told  him  that  he  was  then  very  fure  there 
were  Welfh  Indians;  and  gave  for  reafon,  that  his  Houfe, 
in  North  Carolina,  was  fituated  on  the  great  Indian  Road 
to  Charleftown,  where  he  often  lodged  parties  of  them. 
In  one  of  thefe  parties,  an  Indian  hearing  the  family 
f peaking  Welch  began  to  jump  and  caper  as  if  he  had 
been  out  of  his  fences.  Being  afked  what  was  the  matter 
with  him,  he  replied,  "  I  know  an  Indian  Nation  who 
fpeak  that  language,  and  have  learnt  a  little  of  it  my- 
felf,  by  living  among  them";  and  when  examined,  he  was 


Appendix  133 

found  to  have  fome  knowledge  of  it.  When  afked  where 
they  lived,  he  faid,  "a  great  way  beyond  the  Miffiffippi . " 
Being  promifed  a  handfome  reward  he  faid  that  he  would 
endeavor  to  bring  fome  of  them  to  that  part  of  the  Coun 
try  but  Mr.  Jones  foon  afterwards  returning  to  England, 
he  never  heard  any  more  of  the  Indian. 

XIV 

MR.  BINON'S   ACCOUNT  OF   THE   WELSH   INDIANS 

[From  Further  Observations,  etc.,  Pages  11-13] 

In  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  for  July  laft,  page  612, 
Mr.  Edward  Williams  fays  that  about  twenty  years  ago 
he  became  acquainted  with  a  Mr.  Binon  of  Coyty  in  the 
county  of  Galmorgan,  who  had  been  abfent  from  his  na 
tive  country  about  thirty  years  (in  a  letter  I  received 
from  him  fince,  he  fays  that  on  further  confideration  he 
thinks  it  muft  have  been  feveral  years  longer).  Mr.  Bi 
non  faid  that  he  had  been  an  Indian  trader  from  Phila 
delphia,  for  feveral  Years;  that  about  the  year  1750  he 
and  five  or  fix  more  penetrated  much  farther  than  ufual 
to  the  weftward  of  the  Miffiffippi  and  found  a  Nation  of 
Indians,  who  fpoke  the  Welfh  tongue.  They  had  Iron 
among  them,  lived  in  ftone  built  villages,  and  were  bet 
ter  clothed  than  the  other  tribes.  There  were  alfo  ruin 
ous  buildings  among  them;  one  appeared  like  an  Old 
Welch  castle;  another  like  a  ruined  church,  etc.  They 
fhewed  Mr.  Binon  a  book,  in  Manufcript,  which  they  care 
fully  kept,  believing  it  to  contain  the  myfteries  of  Re 
ligion.  They  told  Mr.  Binon  that  it  was  not  very  long 
fince  a  Man  had  been  among  them  who  underftood  it. 


1 34  Appendix 

This  Man  (whom  they  ef teemed  a  prophet)  told  them 
that  a  people  would  fome  time  vifit  them,  and  explain 
to  them  the  myfteries  in  their  book,  which  would  make 
them  completely  happy.  When  they  were  informed,  that 
Mr.  Binon  could  not  read  it,  they  appeared  very  much 
concerned.  They  conducted  him  and  his  companions  for 
many  days  thro'  vaft  Deferts,  and  plentifully  fupplied 
them  with  provifions  which  the  woods  afforded,  until  they 
had  brought  them  to  a  place  they  well  knew;  and  at  part 
ing,  they  wept  bitterly,  and  urgently  entreated  Mr.  Binon 
to  fend  a  perfon  to  them  who  could  interpret  their  book. 
On  his  return  to  Philadelphia,  he  related  the  ftory,  and 
was  informed  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  Welfh  tract 
(in  Penfylvania)  had  fome  knowledge  of  them,  and  that 
fome  Welfhmen  had  been  among  them." 

A  Gentleman  in  company  with  Meffrs.  Binon  and  Wil 
liams  at  that  time,  in  a  letter  to  me  confirms  the  above 
account.  He  fays  that  Mr.  Binon  declared  that  thefe 
Indians  worfhipped  their  book  as  God,  but  could  not  read 
it.  They  alfo  faid  that  thirty  or  forty  of  them  fome- 
times  vifited  the  Ancient  Britons  fettled  on  the  Welfh 
Track  in  Pennfylvania.  This  circumftance,  by  the  way, 
will  help  us  to  account  for  the  interviews,  which  it  is  faid 
have  taken  place  between  thefe  Indians  and  the  Europe 
ans  at  different  times.  When  Mr.  Binon  faid  that  he 
came  from  Wales,  they  replied,  "  It  was  from  thence  that 
our  Anceftors  came,  but  we  do  not  know  in  what  part 
of  the  world  Wales  is." 


Appendix  1 35 

xv 

THE  SPEECH  OF  MONTEZUMA  TO  HIS   PEOPLE 

[From  Further  Observations,  etc.,  Pages  31-35] 

In  a  letter  to  the  Right  Hon.  William  Pitt,  figned 
Columbus,  inferted  in  the  Public  Advertifer,  September 
23rd,  1790,  there  are  feveral  very  interefting  facts  and 
obfervations  on  this  fubject. 

We  are  there  told  that  Sebastian  Cabot,  about  the 
year  1495,  two  years  after  the  firft  voyage  of  Columbus, 
difcovered  Florida  and  Mexico  and  that  he  found  on  the 
different  parts  of  the  Coaft,  the  defcendants  of  the  firft 
Britifh  difcoverers,  who  fettled  at  Mexico  about  the  year 
1170.  In  the  records  of  the  Mexican  Emperors,  are  fet 
down  the  arrival  and  fettlement  of  their  great  Progen 
itors,  whom  the  unfortunate  Montezuma  defcribes  in  1520, 
in  a  fpeech  made  to  his  fubjects,  after  he  had  been  taken 
prifoner  by  that  monfter  of  cruelty,  Cortez: 

"Kinfmen,  Friends,  Countrymen  and  Subjects:  You 
know  I  have  been  eighteen  years  your  sovereign  and  your 
natural  king,  as  my  illuftrious  predeceffors  and  fathers 
were  before  me,  and  all  the  defcendants  of  my  race,  fince 
we  came  from  a  far  diftant  Northern  Nation,  whofe  tongue 
and  manners  we  yet  have  partly  preferved.  I  have  been 
to  you  a  father,  Guardian,  and  a  loving  Prince,  while  you 
have  been  to  me  faithful  fubjects,  and  obedient  fervants. 

"Let  it  be  held  in  your  remembrance,  that  you  have 
a  claim  to  a  noble  descent,  becaufe  you  have  fprung  from 
a  race  of  Freemen  and  Heroes,  who  fcorned  to  deprive 
the  native  Mexicans  of  their  ancient  liberties,  but  added 
to  their  rational  Freedom,  principles  which  do  honour  to 
human  nature.  Our  divines  have  inftructed  you  of  our 


i36  Appendix 

natural  defcent  from  a  people  the  moft  renowned  upon 
earth  for  liberty  and  valour,  becaufe  of  all  nations  they 
were,  as  our  firft  parents  told  us,  the  only  unfubdued 
people  upon  the  earth,  by  that  warlike  nation,  whofe  tyr 
anny  and  ambition  affumed  the  conqueft  of  the  world; 
but  neverthelefs,  our  great  fore-fathers  checked  their  am 
bition  and  fixed  limits  to  their  conquefts,  altho'  but  the 
inhabitants  of  a  fmall  ifland,  and  but  few  in  number,  com 
pared  to  the  ravagers  of  the  earth,  who  attempted  in  vain 
to  conquer  our  great,  glorious  and  free  forefathers,  &c." 

The  author  of  the  above  account  told  me,  that  he  had 
feen  Montezuma's  fpeech,  in  a  Spanifh  manuscript,  in 
the  year  1748,  when  he  arrived  at  Mexico,  and  that  moft 
probably,  it  is  ft  ill  extant. 

I  would  here  juft  obferve  that  as  the  ancient  Romans 
were  the  Conquerors  alluded  to,  we  may  naturally  fufpect 
that  Julius  Caefar's  attempt  on  Britain,  was  rather  un- 
fuccefsful,  or  at  least  not  fo  brilliant  as  he  cautioufly  en 
deavors  to  reprefent  it. 

The  above  fpirited  fpeech  plainly  fhows  that  the  Mex 
icans  in  1520  looked  upon  themf elves  as  the  defcendants 
of  Freemen  and  Heroes,  the  only  unfubdued  people  upon 
Earth,  who  fet  limits  to  the  Roman  conqueft  though 
only  the  inhabitants  of  a  fmall  ifland  in  the  north,  and  in 
comparifon,  few  in  number;  and  who  taught  them  prin 
ciples,  which  did  honour  to  human  nature,  probably  the 
principles  of  Chriftianity,  which  though  miferably  dis 
figured  in  1170,  yet  were  greatly  fuperior  to  thofe  of  an 
enlightened  favage  people. 

The  above  defcription  remarkably  and  exactly  anfwers 
to  the  Character,  Manners  and  Principles  of  the  Ancient 
Britons. 


LLANRWST  BRIDGE 


LLANRWST   CHURCH 


Appendix  137 


XVI 
THE   GENTLEMAN'S  MAGAZINE  OF  LONDON 

This  magazine  was  the  first  to  lay  before  the  world 
one  of  the  most  important  papers  concerning  the  tradition 
of  the  Welsh  under  Prince  Madoc  in  America  in  the  Twelfth 
century.  In  the  year  1740  it  published  in  Volume  10, 
page  103,  the  letter  of  Reverend  Morgan  Jones  of  Vir 
ginia,  who  had  lived  with  the  Welsh  Indians  in  North 
Carolina  and  talked  with  them  and  preached  to  them  in 
the  Welsh  language.  In  after  years  it  published  many 
important  articles  on  the  same  subject,  and  hence  the 
following  have  been  selected  for  insertion  here. 

William  Owen's  Account  of  the  Welsh  Indians 
[Gentleman's  Magazine,  1791,  Volume  1,  Page  329] 

In  the  year  1170,  Madawg,  a  younger  fon  of  Owen 
Gwynedd,  prince  of  North  Wales,  obferving  a  continued 
ftrife  among  his  brethren  for  a  fcanty  inheritance  of  bar 
ren  rocks,  determined  to  try  his  fortune  in  fearch  of  a 
more  peaceful  country.  He  accordingly  fitted  out  two 
fhips,  and  failed  weftward,  and  difcovered  the  fouthern 
fhores  of  North  America,  as  the  event  has  proved.  Leav 
ing  part  of  his  followers  there,  he  was  enabled  providen 
tially  to  return  to  Europe;  and  on  reprefenting  to  his 
countrymen  what  had  happened,  fo  many  of  them  were 
induced  to  fhare  in  his  enterprize,  that  in  his  fecond  emi 
gration,  he  failed  nearly  in  the  fame  direction,  with  ten 
fhips,  completely  filled,  but  without  being  fo  fortunate 
as  to  fall  in  with  them  he  had  left  behind  in  his 


138  Appendix 

firft  voyage.  There  are  good  grounds  to  affert  that  Ma- 
dawg,  in  this  fecond  voyage,  fell  in  with  the  coaft  of  the 
Carolinas;  for  the  firft  difcovery  of  the  defcendants  of 
that  emigration  was  made  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Morgan  Jones, 
in  1685,  who  found  them,  or  at  leaft  a  part  of  them,  up 
Pontigo  river.  In  confequence  of  the  European  colonies 
fpreading  over  that  country,  or  for  fome  other  caufes, 
they  removed  up  the  country  to  Kentucky,  where  evi 
dent  traces  of  them  have  been  lately  found;  fuch  as  the 
ruins  of  forts,  millftones,  earthen  ware,  etc.  It  is  pre- 
fumed  that,  as  their  fituation  was  fecluded,  and  not  liable 
to  be  molefted,  they  left  it  only  in  confequence  of  dif- 
covering  a  more  inviting  country;  and  none  could  be  more 
fo  than  where  they  finally  fettled.  The  center  of  the  coun 
try  of  the  Madawgwys,  and  where  their  villages  are  moft 
numerous,  is  about  38  degrees  north  latitude,  and  102 
degrees  weft  longitude  of  London;  but  they  extend  (pof- 
fibly  in  detached  communities)  from  about  37  degrees 
north  latitude  and  97  degrees  weft  longitude.  The  gen 
eral  name  of  Cymry  is  not  left -among  them,  though  they 
call  themfelves  Madawgwys,  Madogiaid,  Madagiaint,  and 
Madogian;  names  of  the  fame  import,  meaning  the  peo 
ple  of  Madawg.  Hence  the  French  travellers  in  Louif- 
iana  have  called  them  Padoucas,  Montocantes  and  other 
names  bearing  a  fimilitude  to  what  they  call  themfelves, 
and  by  which  they  are  known  to  the  native  Indians. 
From  the  country  of  the  Madawgwys  fome  of  the  rivers 
run  eaftward  and  others  to  the  weft;  by  the  former  they 
came  into  the  MifTouri,  and  fo  into  the  Miffiffippi,  bring 
ing  with  them  fkins,  pickled  buffalo-tongues,  and  other 
articles  for  traffic,  and  by  the  latter  they  have  a  communi 
cation  with  the  Pacific  ocean,  from  a  great  fait  lake  in 


Appendix  139 

their  country,  down  the  Oregon,  or  the  great  river  of  the 
weft,  through  the  f traits  of  Juan  de  Fuca,  and  other  open 
ings.  The  character  of  thefe  infulated  Cambrians,  who 
are  a  numerous  people,  is  that  they  are  very  warlike;  are 
more  civilized  than  the  Indians;  live  in  large  villages  in 
houfes  built  of  ftone;  are  commodioufly  clad;  ufe  horfes 
in  hunting.  They  have  iron,  of  which  they  could  make 
tools,  but  have  no  fire-arms  and  they  navigate  the  lake 
in  large  piragunas.  Their  government  is  on  the  feudal 
fyftem,  and  their  princes  are  confidered  as  the  direct  de 
scendants  of  Madawg. 

William  Owen's  Further  Account  of  the  Welsh  Indians 
[Gentleman's  Magazine,  1791,  Volume  1,  Page  397] 

The  accounts  which  were  received  prior  to  Mr.  Bowles's 
communications  had  not  furnifhed  me  with  the  name  by 
which  the  Welch  Indians  were  known;  but,  on  comparing 
them  together,  I  was  fully  of  opinion  that  the  Padoucas 
were  thofe  people;  efpecially  as  the  name  was  but  a  flight 
deviation  in  found  from  Madawgwys,  the  real  appellation 
which  we  may  juftly  fuppofe  they  gave  themf elves.  There 
fore  it  made  a  very  forcible  impreffion  on  my  mind,  when 
the  firft  thing  Mr.  Bowles  faid  was,  what  they  are  called, 
the  Padoucas,  in  confirmation  of  the  idea  I  had  formed, 
prior  to  any  inquiry  being  made  at  all  on  the  fubject. 
And  as  to  the  moft  important  point,  whether  the  language 
fpoken  by  thofe  people  was  Welch,  the  proofs  adduced 
were  equally  fatisfactory  and  clear;  there  was,  faid  Mr. 
B.,  a  Welchman  with  me,  at  home,  who  efcaped  from 
the  Spaniards  in  Mexico,  by  making  his  way  acrofs  the 
Continent,  pairing  through  the  country  of  the  Padoucas, 


i4°  Appendix 

where  to  his  great  furprife,  he  found  himfelf  with  a  peo 
ple  f peaking  his  own  language.  He  remained  among 
them  for  fome  time,  and  found  they  had  fome  books, 
which  were  wrapped  up  in  fkins,  and  religiously  preferved, 
and  confidered  to  be  fome  kind  of  myfteries,  as  there 
was  a  tradition  that  thofe  things  contained  an  account 
from  whence  they  had  come.  That  the  Padoucas  fpeak 
the  Welch  language  is  further  confirmed  by  Mr.  Price, 
one  of  the  companions  of  Mr.  Bowles,  who  was  born 
amongft  the  Creeks. 

He,  after  obferving  his  being  acquainted  with  Welch 
himfelf,  declared  that  his  father,  who  was  a  Welchman, 
had  opportunities  of  frequent  interviews,  and  converfed 
with  the  Padoucas  in  his  native  language,  as  he  had  lived 
the  greateft  part  of  his  life,  and  died  in  the  Creek  Country. 

Mr.  Bowles,  in  confequence  of  being  told  at  what  peri 
od  Madawg's  emigration  took  place,  obferved,  that  his 
followers  could  not  have  increafed  to  fo  numerous  a  peo 
ple  confidering  how  few  they  were  when  they  emigrated. 
But  the  accounts  of  Mr.  Price  and  of  Rev.  Mr.  Rankin, 
of  Kentucky,  agree  in  faying,  that  the  Padoucas  have 
lately  leffened  their  number,  through  the  rage  of  civil 
difcord. 

Mr.  Rankin  alfo  reprefents,  that  there  are  evident 
traces  of  their  having  formerly  inhabited  the  country 
about  Kentucky ;  particularly  wells  dug,  which  ftill  remain 
unfilled,  and  ruins  of  buildings,  neither  of  which  were 
the  works  of  the  Indians.  From  the  laft  particulars  we 
may  infer,  that  the  Welch  Indians  found  by  Morgan  Jones 
in  North  Carolina,  about  one  hundred  and  thirty  years 
ago,  were  the  Padoucas,  or  at  leaft  a  part  of  them;  who, 
receding  into  fuch  of  the  interior  parts  as  were  unpoffeffed 


Appendix  141 

by  the  natives,  as  the  European  Colonifts  fpread  over 
the  maritime  countries,  remained  ftationary  for  a  time 
on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio ;  but,  in  confequence  of  exploring 
that  river  to  its  junction  with  the  Miffiffippi,  and  ftill 
preffing  onward,  they  difcovered,  and  finally  fettled  in, 
the  beautiful  region  where  we  now  find  them. 

WILLIAM  OWEN. 


Columbus'  Discovery  of  America  Questioned 
[Lady  Frazer's  Papers  in  Gentleman's  Magazine  Quoted  in  Burder's  Welch  Indians,  Page  5] 

The  chief  thing  that  induced  me  to  look  into  fome 
authors  here  mentioned,  was  my  reading  a  fmall  book 
in  octavo  lent  me  by  a  French  gentleman  to  purfue  about 
twenty-five  years  ago;  it  was  tranflated  into  English  and 
gave  an  account  of  a  great  nation  of  Indians  within-land 
from  Cape  Florida  that  actually  fpeak  Welch. 

i.  Pleafe  to  look  into  James  Howell's  Letters,  vol.  ii., 
p.  71,  concerning  the  ancient  Brittaines,  and  you  will  find 
that  Madoc  ap  Owen,  the  firft  in  the  year  1170,  which 
is  three  hundred  and  fixteen  years  before  Columbus  faw 
it.  He  died  at  Mexico,  and  this  following  epitaph  was 
found  engraven  on  his  tomb  in  the  Welch  language. 

"Madoc  wifmio  ydie  wedd, 
Jawn  ycnan  Owen  Gwynedd, 
Ni  fennum  dvi  enriddoedd, 
Ni  dv  mawr  ondy  mervedd." 

[ENGLISHED] 

"  Madoc  ap  Owen  was  I  call'd, 
Strong,  tall,  and  comely,  not  enthrall'd 
With  home-bred  pleafures;  but  for  fame, 
Through  land  and  fea  I  fought  the  fame.' 


i42  Appendix 

2.  See   third  volume  of   the  Voyages  of   the    Englifh 
Nation,  by  Richard  Hakluyt,  Student  of  Chrift  Church, 
in   Oxford,   p.    i. 

3.  See  Pagett's  Chriftianography,  p.  47. 

4.  See  the  third  and  laft  volume  of  the  Turkifh  Spy, 
p.  202. 

5.  See  Purchas's  Pilgrimage,  book  viii,  p.  899. 

6.  See  Broughton,  who  affirms  that  the  faith  of  Chrift 
was  preached  in  America  by  some  of  our  firft  planters 
that  preached  in  Britain. 

7.  See  George  Abbot,  Lord  Archbifhop  of  Canterbury's 
Hiftory  of  the  World,    p.    255,  56,   and  57,  who    informs 
us  that   King  Arthur  had   fome  knowledge   of  America, 
and  that  a  prince  of  Wales  firft  found  it  out. 

8.  See  the  Welch  Cambria,  wrote  by  David  Powell,  and 
Sir  John   Price,    Knt.    tranflated   into    Englifh  by   Hum 
phrey  Llyod,  Gent.,  there  you  will  fee  the  reafons  that 
induced  the  Prince  Madoc  ap  Owen  Gwynedd  to  travel. 

9.  See  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  Hiftory  of  the  World,  and 
the  words  the  natives  ufed  when  they  talked  together. 
They  fay  thefe  and  the  like  words:    gwrundo,  which  is 
hearken,  or  liften,  in  Welch;  a  bird  with  a  white  head, 
they  call  pengwyn;   the   white   rock,    caregwen;   a  river, 
gwndwr;  and  there  is  a  promontory,  not  far  from  Mex 
ico,  called  Cape  Breton,  all  which  are  Britifh  words;  and 
many  more  words  of  like  nature;  which  does  manifeftly 
fhew  that  it  was  that  country  that  Prince  Madoc 's  peo 
ple  inhabited. 


Appendix  143 


XVII 
UNBELIEVERS  IN  THE  MADOC  TRADITION 

Nearly  all  the  extracts  taken  from  various  authors 
and  authorities  and  inserted  in  the  foregoing  appendix  or 
text  are  in  favor  of  the  truth  of  the  tradition  of  a  Welsh 
colony  established  by  Prince  Madoc  in  America  in  the 
Twelfth  century.  Only  a  fraction  of  them  can  be  con 
sidered  as  dissenting,  and  this  dissent  is  generally  given 
in  such  mild  terms  as  to  carry  no  weight.  It  was  not 
my  purpose  in  preparing  this  monograph  to  present  only 
one  side  of  the  question,  or  to  quote  from  authorities 
only  who  were  in  full  accord.  I  proposed  to  present  facts 
as  they  appear  in  history  and  tradition  and  to  bring  to 
their  support  the  authorities  which  sustain  them,  without 
any  wish  on  my  part  to  give  the  weight  of  authority  to 
either  side.  With  the  facts  as  stated  in  the  text  and 
presented  in  the  extracts  the  reader  has  the  means  of 
forming  an  opinion  of  his  own  as  to  whether  the  tradition 
be  true  or  false.  It  might  seem  fairer,  however,  when 
so  many  authorities  in  favor  of  the  tradition  are  given, 
to  present  some  which  do  not  favor  it,  if  any  such  be 
known.  I  know  of  but  two  authors  of  eminence  enough 
to  speak  on  the  subject,  who  did  not  believe  in  the  truth 
of  the  Madoc  tradition  and  put  themselves  on  record  to 
that  effect.  These  were  Lord  Littleton,  who  in  his  "Life 
of  King  Henry  II"  with  considerable  energy  denied  the 
truth  of  the  Madoc  tradition,  and  William  Robertson, 
who  in  his  "History  of  America"  did  likewise.  Neither  of 
these  historians  had  much  to  say  on  the  subject,  but 
what  was  said  left  no  doubt  of  his  unbelief  in  the  truth 


144  Appendix 

of  the  tradition.  If  it  were  my  undertaking  to  establish 
the  truth  of  the  Madoc  tradition,  I  might  say  that  neither 
Littleton  nor  Robertson  use  uncontestible  facts  or  unan 
swerable  arguments  in  what  they  say;  but  as  it  is  my  pur 
pose  only  to  present  an  historic  sketch  of  the  subject, 
I  have  no  criticism  to  offer.  In  the  following  two  extracts, 
one  from  Littleton  and  the  other  from  Robertson,  the 
reader  will  have  before  him  all  that  these  two  authors  said 
on  the  subject. 

Littleton  on  the  Madoc  Tradition 

This  being  the  laft  mention  made  of  the  Welfh  in  my 
account  of  thefe  times,  I  will  take  notice  here  of  a  re 
markable  paffage  in  Dr.  Powell's  hiftory  of  Wales,  con 
cerning  a  voyage  performed  by  one  of  their  princes  in 
the  1 6th  year  of  the  reign  of  King  Henry  the  Second. 
The  words  are  thefe: 

"Madoc,  another  of  Owen  Gwyneth's  fons,  left  the 
land  in  contention  betwixt  his  brethren,  and  prepared 
certain  fhips  with  men  and  munition,  and  fought  adven 
tures  by  sea,  failing  weft,  and  leaving  the  Coaft  of  Ire 
land  fo  far  to  the  north,  that  he  came  to  a  land  unknown 
where  he  faw  many  ftrange  things." 

In  enquiring  what  credit  is  due  to  this  ftory,  it  will 
be  neceffary  to  premife  that  this  part  of  the  Hiftory  pub- 
lifhed  by  Dr.  Powell  is  not  taken  from  the  Chronicle  of 
Caradoc  of  Llancarvan,  who  (as  Powell  affirms)  ended 
his  collections  in  the  year  1156,  antecedent  to  the  date 
of  this  fuppofed  event;  but  it  is  faid  by  Humphrey  Lluyd, 
the  tranflator  of  Caradoc,  to  have  been  compiled  from 
collections  made  from  time  to  time,  and  kept  in  the  ab 
beys  of  Conway  and  Stratflur. 


BANGOR  VILLAGE 


BANGOR  CATHEDRAL 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


Appendix  145 

We  are  alfo  told  that  the  beft  and  faireft  copy  of  thefe 
was  written  by  Gutryn  Owen  in  the  days  of  Edward  the 
Fourth,  and  tranflated  into  Englifh  by  the  Humphrey 
Lluyd  before-mentioned,  who  flourifhed  in  the  reign  of 
King  Henry  the  Eighth,  and  continued  the  hiftory  to 
the  death  of  Prince  Llewelyn  ap  Gruffyth  in  the  year 
1282.  But,  this  gentleman  having  been  prevented  by 
death  from  publifhing  his  work,  it  was  not  fent  to  the 
prefs  till  the  year  1584,  when  Dr.  Powell  publifhed  it, 
with  many  additions  and  interpolations  of  his  own.  The 
latter  fays  in  his  preface  "that  he  had  conferred  Lluyd 's 
translation  with  the  Britifh  book,  whereof  he  had  two 
ancient  copies,  and  corrected  the  fame  when  there  was 
caufe  so  to  do,"  and  adds,  "that,  after  the  moft  part 
of  the  book  was  printed,  he  received  another  larger  copy 
of  the  fame  tranflation,  being  better  corrected,  at  the 
hands  of  Robert  Glover,  Somerfet  herald,  a  learned  and 
ftudious  gentleman  in  his  profeffion,  the  which  if  he  had 
had  the  beginning,  many  things  had  come  forth  in  better 
plight  than  they  now  be." 

It  is  therefore  very  doubtful  whether  the  above-cited 
paffage  concerning  the  Madoc  voyage  gives  the  fenfe  of 
the  Britifh  book  which  Gutryn  Owen  had  tranfcribed,  as 
tranflated  by  Lluyd,  or  as  corrected  by  Powell,  and  wheth 
er  we  can  depend  on  its  being  agreeable  to  the  original 
text.  It  may  be  fufpected  that  Lluyd,  living  after  the 
difcovery  of  America  by  Columbus,  may  have  dreft  up 
fome  accounts  of  traditions  about  Madoc,  which  he  found 
in  Gutryn  Owen,  or  other  ancient  Welfh  writings,  in  fuch 
a  manner  as  to  make  them  convey  an  idea,  that  this  prince, 
who  perhaps  was  a  bolder  navigator  than  any  of  his  coun 
trymen  in  the  age  when  he  lived,  had  the  honour  of 


Appendix 


being  the  firft  difcoverer  of  that  country.  Sir  Philip  Her 
bert,  a  writer  of  the  fame  nation,  who  is  zealous  for  the 
truth  of  this  fuppofed  difcovery  (which  he  conceives  would 
give  our  kings  a  title  to  the  Weft  Indies)  adds  to  the  au 
thority  of  Gutryn  (or  Guten)  Owen,  that  of  Cynwrick 
ap  Grono,  another  ancient  Welfh  bard,  and  alfo  of  Sir 
Meredith  ap  Rhees  who  lived  in  the  year  1477.  The 
words  of  the  former  bard  he  does  not  quote,  but  thofe 
of  the  latter  he  does,  and  tranflates  them  into  Englifh. 
The  poet,  f  peaking  in  the  perfon  of  his  hero,  fays, 

"  Madoc  ap  Owen  was  I  call'd, 
Strong,  tall  and  comely,  not  enthralled, 
To  home-bred  pleafure,  but  to  fame: 
Thro  land  and  fea  I  fought  the  fame." 

This  proves  indeed  that  Madoc  was  famous  in  thofe 
days  for  fome  voyage  he  had  made,  but,  not  marking 
the  courfe,  it  is  of  no  importance  to  the  matter  in  quef- 
tion,  which  entirely  depends  on  his  difcovering  land  to 
the  fouth-weft  of  Ireland.  Dr.  Powell,  having  given  the 
defcription  above  cited,  viz:  that  he  failed  weft,  and 
leaving  the  coaft  of  Ireland  far  north,  came  to  a  land 
unknown,  adds  the  following  note: 

"This  Madoc  arriving  in  that  weftern  country,  into 
which  he  came  in  the  year  1170,  left  moft  of  his  people 
there,  and  returning  back  for  more  of  his  own  nation, 
acquaintance  and  friends,  to  inhabit  that  fair  and  large 
country,  went  thither  again  with  ten  fails,  as  I  find  it 
noted  by  Gutryn  Owen." 

And  then  he  gives  us  fome  reafons  why  he  takes  this 
land  unknown  to  have  been  fome  part  of  Mexico,  rather 
than  of  Nova  Hifpania,  or  Florida  as  Lluyd  had  fuppofed. 
Without  comparing  the  arguments  for  their  different  con- 


Appendix  147 

jectures  (as  none  of  them  feem  to  me  to  have  much  weight) 
I  will  only  fay  that  if  Madoc  did  really  difcover  any  part 
of  America,  or  any  iflands  lying  to  the  fouth-weft  of  Ire 
land  in  the  Atlantic  ocean,  without  the  help  of  the  com- 
pafs,  at  a  time  when  navigation  was  ill  underftood,  and 
with  mariners  lefs  expert  than  any  others  in  Europe,  he 
performed  an  atchievment  incomparably  more  extraor 
dinary  than  that  of  Columbus.  But,  befides  the  incredi 
bility  of  the  thing  itfelf,  another  difficulty  occurs;  that 
is,  to  know  how  it  happened  that  no  Englifh  hiftorian, 
contemporary  with  him,  has  faid  a  word  of  this  furpriz- 
ing  event,  which,  on  his  return  into  Wales,  and  public 
report  of  the  many  ftrange  things  he  had  feen,  muft  have 
made  a  great  noife  among  the  Englifh  in  thofe  parts, 
and  would  have  certainly  reached  the  ears  of  Henry  him- 
felf.  Why  is  no  notice  taken  of  a  fact  fo  important  to 
the  honour  of  his  country  by  Giraldus  Cambrenfis,  who 
treats  fo  largely  of  the  ftate  of  Wales  in  his  times?  One 
may  alfo  be  in  fome  doubt,  what  could  have  caufed  fo 
entire  a  deftruction  of  the  colony  planted  by  Madoc,  and 
of  all  belonging  to  it,  as  that  in  no  land,  fince  difcovered 
to  the  south-weft  of  Ireland,  any  certain  monument,  vef- 
tige,  or  memory  of  it,  has  ever  yet  been  found.  But 
the  firft  foundation  of  all  enquiry  about  this  adventure, 
which  many  good  modern  writers  have  inclined  to  be 
lieve,  fhould  be  a  faithful  and  well-attefted  tranflation 
of  the  words  of  Gutryn  Owen,  or  Cynwrick  ap  Grono, 
relating  thereto,  if  their  writings  ftill  remain.  (Notes 
to  Littleton's  Henry  II,  edition  of  1767,  Volume  4, 
page  371.) 


148  Appendix 


Robertson  on  the  Madoc  Tradition 

The  pretensions  of  the  Welsh  to  the  discovery  of  Amer 
ica  seem  not  to  rest  on  a  foundation  much  more  solid. 
In  the  Twelfth  century,  according  to  Powell,  a  dispute 
having  arisen  among  the  sons  of  Owen  Guyneth,  king  of 
North  Wales,  concerning  the  succession  to  his  crown, 
Madoc,  one  of  their  number,  weary  of  this  contention, 
betook  himself  to  sea  in  quest  of  a  more  quiet  settle 
ment.  He  steered  due  west,  leaving  Ireland  to  the  north, 
and  arrived  in  an  unknown  country,  which  appeared  to 
him  so  desirable  that  he  returned  to  Wales,  and  carried 
thither  several  of  his  adherents  and  companions.  This 
is  said  to  have  happened  about  the  year  1170,  and  after 
that,  he  and  his  colony  were  heard  of  no  more.  But  it 
is  to  be  observed  that  Powell,  on  whose  testimony  the 
authenticity  of  this  story  rests,  published  his  history 
about  four  centuries  from  the  date  of  the  event  which 
he  relates.  Among  a  people  as  rude  and  illiterate  as  the 
Welsh  at  that  period,  the  memory  of  a  transaction  so 
remote  must  have  been  very  imperfectly  preserved,  and 
would  require  to  be  confirmed  by  some  author  of  greater 
credit,  and  nearer  to  the  era  of  Madoc 's  voyage,  than 
Powell.  Later  antiquaries  have  indeed  appealed  to  the 
testimony  of  Meredith  ap  Rees,  a  Welsh  bard  who  died 
A.  D.  1477.  But  he,  too,  lived  at  such  a  distance  of  time 
from  the  event  that  he  can  not  be  considered  as  a  wit 
ness  of  much  more  credit  than  Powell.  Besides,  his  verses, 
published  by  Hakluit,  Volume  III,  page  i,  convey  no 
information  but  that  Madoc,  dissatisfied  with  his  domes 
tic  situation,  employed  himself  in  searching  the  ocean 
for  new  possessions.  But  even  if  we  admit  the  authen- 


Appendix  149 

ticity  of  Powell's  story,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  un 
known  country  which  Madoc  discovered  by  steering  west, 
in  such  a  course  as  to  leave  Ireland  to  the  north,  was 
any  part  of  America.  The  naval  skill  of  the  Welsh  in 
the  Twelfth  century  was  hardly  equal  to  such  a  voyage. 
If  he  made  any  discovery  at  all,  it  is  more  probable  that 
it  was  Madeira,  or  some  other  of  the  Western  isles.  The 
affinity  of  the  Welsh  language  with  some  dialects  spoken 
in  America  has  been  mentioned  as  a  circumstance  which 
confirms  the  truth  of  Madoc 's  voyage.  But  that  affinity 
has  been  observed  in  so  few  instances,  and  in  some  of 
these  is  so  obscure,  or  so  fanciful,  that  no  conclusion  can 
be  drawn  from  the  casual  resemblance  of  a  small  num 
ber  of  words.  There  is  a  bird  which,  as  far  as  is  yet 
known,  is  found  only  on  the  coasts  of  South  America, 
from  Port  Desire  to  the  Straits  of  Magellan.  It  is  dis 
tinguished  by  the  name  of  Penguin.  This  word  in  the 
Welsh  language  signifies  White-head.  Almost  all  the  au 
thors  who  favor  the  pretensions  of  the  Welsh  to  the  dis 
covery  of  America  mention  this  as  an  irrefragable  proof 
of  the  affinity  of  the  Welsh  language  with  that  spoken 
in  this  region  of  America.  But  Mr.  Pennant,  who  has 
given  a  scientific  description  of  the  penguin,  observes 
that  all  the  birds  of  this  genus  have  black  heads,  "  so 
that  we  must  resign  every  hope  (adds  he)  founded  on 
this  hypothesis  of  retrieving  the  Cambrian  race  in  the 
New  World."  Philos.  Transac.,  Volume  LVIII,  page  91, 
etc.  Besides  this,  if  the  Welsh,  towards  the  close  of  the 
Twelfth  century,  had  settled  in  any  part  of  America, 
some  remains  of  the  Christian  doctrine  and  rites  must 
have  been  found  among  their  descendants  when  they  were 
discovered  about  three  hundred  years  posterior  to  their 


1 50  Appendix 

migration;  a  period  so  short,  that  in  the  course  of  it  we 
can  not  well  suppose  that  all  European  ideas  and  arts 
would  be  totally  forgotten.  Lord  Littleton,  in  his  notes 
to  the  fifth  book  of  his  History  of  Henry  II,  page  371, 
has  examined  what  Powell  relates  concerning  the  discov 
eries  made  by  Madoc,  and  invalidates  the  truth  of  his 
story  by  other  arguments  of  great  weight.  (Robertson's 
History  of  North  and  South  America,  London  edition, 
1834,  page  241.) 


LIST  OF  MEMBERS 

Of  The  Filson  Club,  1908. 

ADAMS,  GILMER  S 1515  Third Louisville. 

ANDERSON,  COLONEL  LATHAM Kuttawa. 

ANDERSON,  JAMES  BLYTHE Lexington. 

ANDERSON,  WILKINS  G Sixth  and  St.  Catherine Louisville. 

ANDERSON,  Miss  ANNIE  S Sixth  and  St.  Catherine Louisville. 

ANDERSON,  Miss  ANNIE  M Taylorsville. 

ATKINSON,  JOHN  BOND Earlington. 

AVERITT,  SAMUEL 424  West  St.  Catherine Louisville. 

BAIRD,  Miss  LUCY 1305  Cherokee  Road Louisville. 

BALLARD,  CHARLES  T 930  Fourth Louisville. 

BARKER,  MAXWELL  S West  Finzer,  north  of  Willow  .Louisville. 

BARR,  GARLAND  H Lexington. 

BARRET,  HENRY  W 1334  Fourth Louisville. 

BARRET,  ALEXANDER  G 427  Park  Avenue Louisville. 

BARRETT,  MRS.  MARGARET  B Frankfort. 

BARFIELD,  CASTELLO 2506  Catalpa Louisville. 

BAUGH,  C.  R London. 

BETHEL,  MRS.  THERESA  W Danville. 

BICKEL,  C.  C 1438  East  Broadway Louisville. 

BINGHAM,  ROBERT  WORTH Kentucky  Title  Building Louisville. 

BLACKBURN,  MRS.  JULIA  C 1500  Third Louisville. 

BLAIN,  RANDOLPH  H 811  Columbia  Building Louisville. 

BLANTON,  REVEREND  L.  H Danville. 

BOHNE,  ERNEST  C 1106  West  Broadway Louisville. 

BOHANNAN,  THOMAS 519  Belgravia  Court Louisville. 

BOND,  MRS-  MARY  DOWLING Lawrenceburg. 

BOOTH,  PERCY  N 1026  Fourth Louisville. 

BOWMAR,  DANIEL  MAYES Versailles 


i52  List  of  Members 

BRANSFORD,  CLIFTON  W Owensboro. 

BRENT,  GEORGE  A Louisville  Trust  Building Louisville. 

BRODHEAD,  LUCAS Versailles. 

BROOKS,  Miss  HELEN  LEE Seventh  and  Chestnut Louisville. 

BROWN,  GEORGE  G 1517  Fourth Louisville. 

BROWN,  OWSLEY 1517  Fourth Louisville. 

BRUCE,  HELM 1613  Third Louisville. 

BUCKNER,  GENERAL  SIMON  B Rio(Munfordsville) 

BULLITT,  MAJOR  THOMAS  W 1115  Fourth Louisville. 

BULLITT,  JOSHUA  F Big  Stone  Gap,  Va, 

BULLOCK,  CABELL  B ; Lexington. 

BURNAM,  HONORABLE  CURTIS  F Richmond. 

BURNETT,  JAMES  C Shelbyville. 

BURNETT,  HENRY 1521  Fourth Louisville. 

BURTON,  GEORGE  L 33  Louisville  Trust  Building. . Louisville. 

BURTON,  HARDY 1422  Second Louisville. 

CALHOUN,  C.  C Colorado  Building Washington,  D.  C. 

CALDWELL,  MRS.  MINNIE  N 815  Fourth Louisville. 

CARROLL,  CHARLES Equitable  Building Louisville. 

CASTLEMAN,  GENERAL  JOHN  B 1415  Fourth Louisville. 

CAWEIN,  MADISON  J St.  James  Court Louisville. 

CHAMBERLIN,  Miss  CATHERINE  ....  1407  Sixth Louisville. 

CHEATHAM,  DOCTOR  WILLIAM  ....  303  West  Chestnut Louisville. 

CLARKE,  PEYTON  N 1431  Third Louisville. 

CLAY,  Miss  LUCRETIA  H Lexington. 

CLAY,  JAMES  W Henderson. 

COATES,  MRS.  IDA  SYMMES R.  F.  D.  No.  10 Jefferson  County. 

COCHRAN,  JOHN 821  West  Main Louisville. 

COKE,  MRS.  QUEENIE  BLACKBURN.  .  1060  Second Louisville. 

COKE,  DOCTOR  R.  H The  Parfeit,  Fifth  and  Hill. . .  .Louisville. 

CONKLING,  Miss  RUBY 1313  First Louisville. 

COOK,  CHARLES  LEE 1052  /Third Louisville. 


List  of  Members  153 


COTTFLL,  DOCTOR  HENRY  A 1012  Fourth Louisville. 

COWAN,  COLONEL  ANDREW 912  Fourth Louisville. 

COWAN,  MRS.  ANNA  GILBERT 912  Fourth Louisville. 

CRAWFORD,  REV.  CLARENCE  K 1805  First Louisville. 

CROSS,  PROFESSOR  WILLIAM  O..  .  .1032  Fourth Louisville. 

DAVIE,  PRESTON 1118  Fourth Louisville. 

DEPPEN,  VERY  REVEREND  Louis  G .  St.  Joseph 's  Infirmary ........  Louisville. 

BEARING,  WILLIAM  GRAHAM United  States  Custom  House..  Louisville. 

DICKEY,  REVEREND  JOHN  J Simpsonville. 

DICK,  MRS.  BELLE  THORNTON Second  near  Kentucky Louisville. 

DOERHOEFER,  BASIL Broadway  and  Forty-fourth. .  .Louisville. 

DOHERTY,  DANIEL  E 1725  First Louisville. 

DONIGAN,  MRS.  R.  W 1358  Second Louisville. 

DOTY,  WILLIAM  KAVENAUGH Richmond. 

DOUGHERTY,  WILLIAM  H Owingsville. 

DUKE,  GENERAL  BASIL  W 212  East  Broadway Louisville. 

DUNLAP,  DOCTOR  FAYETTE Danville. 

DuRELLE,  HONORABLE  GEORGE  . . .  1524  First Louisville. 

DURRETT,  REUBEN  T 202  East  Chestnut Louisville. 

DURRETT,  DOCTOR  WILLIAM  T. . .  .  202  East  Chestnut Louisville. 

DURRETT,  MRS.  SARA  E 202  East  Chestnut Louisville. 

DURRETT,  REUBEN  T.,  Jr 202  East  Chestnut Louisville. 

ENGELHARD,  VICTOR  H 1309  Second Louisville. 

EDDY,  JOSEPH  M 440  West  Main Louisville. 

EVANS,  DOCTOR  THOMAS  GRAIN  . .  .419  West  Chestnut Louisville. 

FARNSLEY,  BUREL  H Equitable  Building Louisville. 

FAIRLEIGH,  DAVID  W 1919  Brook Louisville. 

FIELD,  HONORABLE  EMMET 327  Fifth Louisville. 

FINCK,  EDWARD  BERTRAND 200  East  Gray Louisville. 

FOWLER,  COLONEL  CHARLES  W Lyndon. 

GARDNER,  Miss  LIZZIE Kentucky  Street  School Louisville. 

GATES,  CHARLES  D 1052  Second Louisville. 


154  List  of  Members 

GAULBERT,  GEORGE 1322  Fourth Louisville. 

GENTRY,  ROBERT  T Sonora. 

GIBSON,  CHARLES  H Louisville  Trust  Building Louisville. 

GILBERT,  HONORABLE  G.  G Shelbyville. 

GIFFORD,  HARLEY  N .  1118  Second Louisville. 

GILBERT,  DOCTOR  RICHARD  B 712  Third Louisville. 

GODSHA w,  DOCTOR  CRAINE  C 2450  Third Louisville. 

GOERTNER,  PHILIP  A 216  Fifth Louisville. 

GOODMAN,  HARRY  M.,  M.  D 817  Third Louisville. 

GRAHAM,  SAMUEL  P 1289  Second Louisville. 

GREEN,  PINCKNEY  F 1 116  Fourth Louisville. 

GREEN,  Miss  SUSIE  T Second  and  Broadway Louisville. 

GREEN,  Miss  NANCI  LEWIS Lexington. 

GREEN,  JOHN  E 170  Broadway New  York  City. 

GRISWOLD,  HOWARD  M 222  East  Jacob Louisville. 

GRUBBS,  CHARLES  S 513  Ormsby  Avenue Louisville. 

GUNN,  JOHN  T Lexington. 

HAGAN,  FRANK 233  Fifth Louisville. 

HALDEMAN,  BRUCE Courier-Journal Louisville. 

HARDING,  JOHN Pleasureville. 

HARRIS,  HONORABLE  WALTER  O.  .940  Third Louisville. 

HARMAN,  T.  A 1692  Everett  Avenue Louisville. 

HARRISON,  MRS  IDA  WITHERS 530  Elmtree  Lane Lexington. 

HART,  MRS.  REBECCA  T Versailles. 

HARDY,  MRS.  SALLIE  E.  M 223  East  Breckinridge Louisville. 

HAYS,  MRS.  ROSA  BELLE  McCuL- 

LOUGH 1021  Fourth Louisville. 

HAZELRIGG,  JUDGE  JAMES  H Frankfort. 

HELM,  JAMES  P 1112  Fourth Louisville. 

HELM,  JOHN  L 1523  Fourth Louisville. 

HENDRICK,  HONORABLE  WILLIAM  J  .302  Broadway New  York  City. 

HEWITT,  GENERAL  FAYETTE Frankfort. 


List  of  Members  155 


HILL.  THOMAS  P Stanford. 

HINES,  EDWARD  W Third  and  Broadway Louisville. 

HITE,  WILLIAM  W 176  Fourth Louisville. 

HITCHCOCK,  C.  J 502  Belgravia  Court Louisville. 

HOCKER,  JESSE  S Stanford. 

HOPKINS,  ANDERSON  H Carnegie  Library Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

HOPPER,  JAMES  W 950  Fifth Louisville. 

HOWARD,  HONORABLE  HENRY  L Harlan  C.  H. 

HOWE,  BENJAMIN 207  East  Chestnut Louisville. 

HUBBELL,  PROFESSOR  GEORGE  A.. Kentucky  University Lexington. 

HUMPHREY,  HON.  ALEXANDER  P.  .608-14  Louisville  Trust  Bldg..  Louisville. 

HUMPHREY,  E.  W.  C 1403  Fourth Louisville. 

HUNDLEY,  JOHN  B 241  West  Main Louisville. 

HUNTER,  MRS.  ROBERT 1216  First Louisville. 

HURST,  WILLIAM  L Campton. 

HUTCHCRAFT,  REUBEN,  JR Lexington. 

JOHNSON,  CHARLES  F 928  Second Louisville. 

JOHNSTON,  COLONEL  J.  STODDARD.IOS  East  Broadway Louisville. 

JONES,  JUDGE  L.  H 620  First Louisville. 

JONES,  THOMAS  S 205  East  Chestnut Louisville. 

KAUFMAN,  HENRY 1609  Fourth Louisville. 

KEARNS,  DOCTOR  CHARLES Eighth  and  Madison Covington. 

KINCHLOE,  JESSE  B Shelbyville. 

KINKEAD,  ROBERT  C. 425  Park  Avenue Louisville. 

KINKEAD,  CLEVES  G 425  Park  Avenue Louisville. 

KIRBY,  HONORABLE  SAMUEL  B.  . .  Upper  River  Road Jefferson  County. 

KNOTT,  RICHARD  W Evening  Post Louisville. 

KNOTT,  STUART  R First  National  Bank Kansas  City,  Mo. 

LAFON,  Miss  MARY 1501  Fourth Louisville. 

LANCASTER,  MRS.  CATHERINE.  ...  1161  Sixth Louisville. 

LAU,  MRS.  HELEN  ADAMS Madison  House Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

LEAK,  JOHN  S 2010  Floyd Louisville. 


List  of  Members 


LEECH,  MRS.  CAROLINE  A  ........  1735  First  ..................  Louisville. 

LEOPOLD,  LAWRENCE  S  ...........  Kentucky  Title  Building  ......  Louisville. 

LEWIS,  Miss  BETTIE  .............  1012  Fourth  ................  Louisville. 

LEVI,  Miss  LILY  E  ..............  2406  West  Chestnut  ..........  Louisville. 

LEWIS,  JOHN  C  ................  .  .  568  Fourth  .................  Louisville. 

LEWIS,  HENRY  JOHN  .......................................  Terlingua,  Tex. 

LINDSAY,  HONORABLE  WILLIAM  .  .205  West  Fifty-seventh  .......  New  York  City. 

LYTLE,  MRS.  ELIZABETH  .........  820  Fourth  .................  Louisville. 

MACKOY,  HONORABLE  WILLIAM  H.  714-1  5  First  Nat,  Bank  Bldg,  .  Cincinnati,  O. 
MACKOY,  HARRY  BRENT  .........  United  Bank  Building  ........  Cincinnati,  O. 

MARTIN,  MRS.  C.  L  ..............  841  Second  .................  Louisville. 

MATTHEWS,  MRS.  M.  C.  DUKE  ...  60  West  Fifty-ninth  ..........  New  York  City. 

MERCER,  S.  C  ..............................................  Hopkinsville. 

MILLER,  HOWARD  ...............  1125  West  Broadway  ........  Louisville. 

MILLER,  MADISON  L  .............  224  East  Ormsby  ............  Louisville. 

MILLER,  DOCTOR  JOSEPH  L  ..................................  Thomas,  W.  Va. 

MORTON,  HONORABLE  J.  R  ..................................  Lexington. 

MORTON,  THOMAS  B.  .  .  ..........  438  West  Main  ..............  Louisville. 

MOURNING,  G.  H  ................  1332  Third  ..................  Louisville. 

MUIR,  HONORABLE  PETER  B  .....  Louisville  Trust  Building  .....  Louisville. 

MURPHY,  D.  X  ..................  250  Fifth  ...................  Louisville. 

MURPHY,  JAMES  C  ...............  250  Fifth  ...................  Louisville. 

McBRAYER,  JAMES  A.,  SR  .................................  Lawrenceburg. 

McCnoRD,  WILLIAM  C  .......................................  Springfield. 

McLxosKEY,    RIGHT    REVEREND 

WILLIAM  GEORGE  .............  1307  Brook  .................  Louisville. 

McCoRMicK,  DOCTOR  J.  M  ...................................  Bowling  Green. 

McCREARY,  HONORABLE  JAMES  B  ............................  Richmond. 

McCuLLOUGH,  JOSEPH  G  .........  1625  Third  ..................  Louisville. 

McDowELL,  MRS.  CATHERINE  G.W.  1237  Second  ................  Louisville. 

McGoNiGALE,  W.  J  ..............  2212  Third  ..................  Louisville. 

MCKNIGHT,  STUART  ........  .....  401  West  Broadway  .........  Louisville. 


List  of  Members  157 

MCKNIGHT,  WILLIAM  H 401  West  Broadway Louisville. 

McPHERSON,  ERNEST 612  West  Broadway Louisville. 

NEWCOMB,  HERMAN  DANFORTH  . .  509  West  Ormsby Louisville. 

NEWMAN,  GEORGE  A.,  JR 1616  Fourth Louisville. 

NELSON,  JUDGE  GEORGE  B Winchester. 

NORMAN,  ALBERT  C U.  S.  S.  Winona Gulf  port,  Miss. 

O'DoHERTY,  JUDGE  MATTHEW  O.  .519  West  St.  Catherine Louisville. 

O  'NEAL,  JOSEPH  T 1 104  Second Louisville. 

OTTER,  ROBERT  H 1105  Fourth Louisville. 

OTTER,  WILLIAM  M 214  Sixth Louisville. 

OTTER,  JOHN  D 214  Sixth Louisville. 

OWENS,  HONORABLE  WILLIAM  C.  .Kentucky  Title  Building Louisville. 

PARISH,  PHILEMON  P Midway. 

PATTERSON,  JAMES  K.,  LL.  D Lexington. 

PARKER,  DOCTOR  JOHN  W.  F Somerset. 

PARKER,  CHARLES  A Columbia  Building Louisville. 

PENDLETON,  DWIGHT  L Winchester. 

PENNEBAKER,  ELLIOTT  K Kentucky  Title  Building Louisville. 

PETER,  Miss  JOHANNA R.  F.  D.  No.  7 Lexington. 

PETER,  M.  CARY 2002  Third Louisville. 

PETTET,  Miss  CATHERINE 1400  Third Louisville. 

PETTUS,  JOSEPH 2104  Fourth Louisville. 

PICKETT,  DOCTOR  THOMAS  E 213  Wall Maysville. 

PIRTLE,  HONORABLE  JAMES  S 1215  Third Louisville. 

PIRTLE,  CAPTAIN  ALFRED 1720  Brook Louisville. 

PIRTLE,  JOHN  ROWAN 1326  West  Chestnut Louisville. 

POTTINGER,  SAMUEL  FOREST Pension  Office Washington,  D.  C. 

POWELL,  REVEREND  EDWARD  L.  .101  East  Kentucky Louisville. 

POWER,  LIEUTENANT  CARROLL —  1659  Everett  Avenue Louisville. 

POWERS,  JOSHUA  DEE National  Trust  Company Louisville. 

PRICE,  GENERAL  SAMUEL  W 4600  McPherson  Avenue Ferguson,  Mo. 

PRICE,  VERNON  D 1513  Fourth Louisville. 


List  of  Members 


PRIEST,  WILLIAM  C 351  Fifth Louisville. 

QUARRIER,  CUSHMAN Third  and  Burnett Louisville. 

QUEEN,  Miss  OCTAVIA 304  West  St.  Catherine Louisville. 

QUISENBERRY,  JOHN  A Danville. 

QUISENBERRY,  A.  C Inspector  General's  Office.  .  .  .  Washington,  D.  C. 

REEVE,  JOHN  L Henderson. 

REED,  JOHN  DUFF 1410  Garvin  Place Louisville. 

REVENAUGH,  AURELIUS  0 562  Fourth Louisville. 

REYNOLDS,  DOCTOR  DUDLEY  S...  .316-358  Fourth Louisville. 

REYNOLDS,  REVEREND  CHARLES  LEE,  D.  D Lexington. 

RICHARDSON,  ORLA  C 1604  Second Louisville. 

ROBINSON,  C.  BONNYCASTLE 529  West  Main Louisville. 

ROBINSON,  A.  H 808  Columbia  Building Louisville. 

RowELL,  JOSEPH  KIRK 1512  Twenty-first Louisville. 

RUSSELL,  JOHN  C Louisville  Trust  Building Louisville. 

RUTLEDGE,  ARTHUR Louisville  Trust  Building Louisville. 

SACKETT,  FREDERICK  M 1614  Third Louisville. 

SANDERS,  Miss  MYRA Shepherdsville. 

SCHROEDER,  Miss  EM  SIDELL Middleburgh,  Va. 

SCOTT,  JOHN  MATTHEW Kentucky  Title  Building Louisville. 

SCHULTE,  BATTS  OVERTON 1018  Fourth Louisville. 

SELLIGMAN,  ALFRED 57  Kenyon  Building Louisville. 

SEMPLE,  MRS.  PATTY  B 1222  Fourth Louisville. 

SEMPLE,  Miss  ELLEN  C 509  West  Ormsby Louisville. 

SHACKELFORD,  W.  RHODES Richmond. 

SHELBY,  MRS.  SUSAN  HART Lexington. 

SHELBY,  EVAN 116  West  Seventy-fourth New  York  City. 

SHELBY,  JOHN  T Trust  Company  Building Lexington. 

SHELDON,  GENERAL  H.  S 502  Belgravia  Court Louisville. 

SHREVE,  CHARLES  U 1618  Third Louisville. 

SHERLEY,  HONORABLE  SWAGER.  .  .301  Louisville  Trust  Building .  Louisville. 
SLOSS,  STANLEY  E 1517  Second Louisville. 


List  of  Members  159 


SMITH,  DOCTOR  DAVID  T  .........  115  East  Broadway  ..........  Louisville. 

SMITH,  Miss  MARY  LULA  ........  204  East  Broadway  ..........  Louisville. 

SMITH,  CLARK  0  .................  228  East  Jacob  ..............  Louisville. 

SMITH,  ROGERS  M  ..........................................  Worthington. 

SMITH,  MILTON  H  ...............  1240  Fourth  ................  Louisville. 

SMITH,  ZACHARY  F  ..............  644  Third  ...................  Louisville. 

SMITH,  CAPTAIN  S.  CALHOUN  .....  742  Seventh  ................  Louisville. 

SPEED,  JAMES  B  .................  501  West  Ormsby  ...........  Louisville. 

STEGE,  Miss  LILLIAN  E  ..........  1912  First  ..................  Louisville. 

STEELE,  JOHN  A  ............................................  Midway. 

STEPHENSON,  HONORABLE  WILLIAM  W  .......................  Harrodsburg. 

STEWART,  Miss  JESSIE  ...........  620  West  Breckinridge  .......  Louisville. 

STEWART,  JEFFERSON  DAVIS  .....  R.  F.  D.  No.  10.  .  .-^  .........  Buechel. 

STITES,  JOHN  ...................  1604  Cherokee  Road  .........  Louisville. 

STROTHER,  JOHN  C  ..............  Louisville  Trust  Building  .....  Louisville. 

SWEARINGEN,  EMBRY  L  ..........  Kentucky  Title  Building  .....  Louisville. 

SWEETS,  REVEREND  DAVID  ..................................  Shelbyville. 

SWEETS,  REVEREND  HENRY  H.  .  .  232  Fourth  .................  Louisville. 

TAYLOR,  EDWARD  H.,  JR  ....................................  Frankfort. 

TERRY,  ALVAH  L  ................  502  West  Ormsby  ...........  Louisville. 

TEVIS,  ROBERT  C  ................  1608  Fourth  ..................  Louisville. 

TEVIS,  JOHN  ....................  Kentucky  Title  Building  .....  Louisville. 

THATCHER,  MAURICE  H  ..........  722  West  Chestnut  ...........  Louisville. 

THARP,  PROFESSOR  WILLIAM  H..  .1526  First  ..................  Louisville. 

THOMAS,  REV.  FRANK  MOREHEAD  .211  East  Fourth  .............  Owensboro. 

THORNTON,  DAVID  L  .....................  .  ..................  Versailles. 

THRUSTON,  R.  C.  too..... 


TODD,  HONORABLE  GEORGE  D.  ...  33  St.  James  Court  ..........  Louisville. 

TODD,  ADMIRAL  C.  C  .......................................  Frankfort. 

TOWNSEND,  JOHN  W  .............  304  South  Limestone  .........  Lexington. 

TUCKER,  MRS.  MATTIE  B  .........  Gait  House  .................  Louisville. 


160  List  of  Members 

TURNER,  MRS.  EUGENIA Cherokee  Drive Louisville. 

VEECH,  RICHARD  S St.  Matthews. 

WALKER,  WALTER 1710  Fourth Louisville. 

WALLER,  GRANVILLE  B 322  East  Chestnut Louisville. 

WALTER,  LEWIS  A 1618  Floyd Louisville. 

WALTZ,  REVEREND  S.  S 419  East  Broadway Louisville. 

WARREN,  EUGENE  C 730  Eighth Louisville. 

WARREN,  REVEREND  EDWARD  L..  1631  Cherokee  Road Louisville. 

WATHEN,  DOCTOR  WILLIAM  H 400  Belgravia  Court Louisville. 

WATSON,  ADMIRAL  JOHN  CRITTEN- 

DEN 817  Second Louisville. 

WATHEN,  Miss  MARGARET  A 412  West  Oak Louisville. 

WATTS,  Miss  LUCY 2909  Portland  Avenue Louisville. 

WATTERSON,  HONORABLE  HENRY.  Courier-Journal Louisville. 

WELLS,  LEWIS  G 102  West  Hill Louisville. 

WEISSINGER,  HARRY 1242  Fourth Louisville. 

WELCH,  JOHN  HARRISON Nicholasville. 

WHEAT,  JOHN  L 1026  Seventh Louisville. 

WHEELER,  F.  CLAY Winchester. 

WHITE,  HONORABLE  JOHN  D 205  Crescent  Hill Louisville. 

WICKLIFFE,  JOHN  D Bardstown. 

WILHOIT,  E.  B Wilhoit  Building Grayson. 

WILLIS,  DOCTOR  C.  C 215  West  Broadway Louisville. 

WILLIAMS,  DOCTOR  MARGARET  C..2909  Portland  Avenue Louisville. 

WILLSON,  GOVERNOR  AUGUSTUS  E Frankfort. 

WILSON,  DOCTOR  DUNNING  S 222  East  St.  Catherine Louisville. 

WILSON,  SAMUEL  M Lexington 

WILSON,  GEORGE  H 39  St.  James  Court Louisville. 

WOOD,  WILLIAM  F 1135  First Louisville. 

WOODS,  HONORABLE  CLARENCE  E Richmond. 

WOODRUFF,  MRS.  JANIE  SCOTT..  .  .309-11  Peters  Building Atlanta,  Ga. 

WOODS,  REVEREND  NEANDER Clarksville,  Tenn. 


List  of  Members  161 


WOODS,  ROBERT  E 2109  Brook Louisville. 

WOODSON,  ISAAC  T 105  West  Barret  Avenue Louisville. 

WOOLFOLK,  LEANDER  C 1401  Fourth Louisville. 

WORTHINGTON,  DOCTOR  SAMUEL  M Versailles. 

YAGER,  PROFESSOR  ARTHUR Georgetown. 

YEAMAN,  REVEREND  M.  V.  P Harrodsburg. 

YOUNG,  COLONEL  BENNETT  H. . . .  1535  Fourth Louisville. 

YOUNGLOVE,  JOHN  E Bowling  Green. 

YUST,  WILLIAM  F Free  Public  Library Louisville. 


LIST  OF  FILSON  CLUB  PUBLICATIONS 

The  Filson  Club  is  an  historical,  biographical,  and 
literary  association  located  in  Louisville,  Kentucky.  It 
was  named  after  John  Filson,  the  first  historian  of  Ken 
tucky,  whose  quaint  little  octavo  of  one  hundred  and 
eighteen  pages  was  published  at  Wilmington,  Delaware, 
in  1784.  It  was  organized  May  15,  1884,  and  incorporated 
October  5,  1891,  for  the  purpose,  as  expressed  in  its  char 
ter,  of  collecting,  preserving,  and  publishing  the  history 
of  Kentucky  and  adjacent  States,  and  cultivating  a  taste 
for  historic  inquiry  and  study  among  its  members.  While 
its  especial  field  of  operations  was  thus  theoretically  lim 
ited,  its  practical  workings  were  confined  to  no  locality. 
Each  member  is  at  liberty  to  choose  a  subject  and  pre 
pare  a  paper  and  read  it  to  the  Club,  among  whose  ar 
chives  it  is  to  be  filed.  From  the  papers  thus  accumulated 
selections  are  made  for  publication,  and  there  have  now 
been  issued  twenty- three  volumes  of  these  publications. 
They  are  all  paper-bound  quartos,  printed  with  pica  old- 
style  type  on  pure  white  antique  paper,  with  broad  mar 
gins,  untrimmed  edges,  and  halftone  illustrations.  They 
have  been  admired  both  at  home  and  abroad,  not  only 
for  their  original  and  valuable  matter,  but  also  for  their 
tasteful  and  comely  appearance.  They  are  not  printed 
for  sale  in  the  commercial  sense  of  the  term,  but  for  dis 
tribution  among  the  members  of  the  Club.  Only  limited 
editions  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  Club  are  published, 
but  any  numbers  which  may  be  left  over  after  the  mem 
bers  have  been  supplied  are  exchanged  with  other  associ- 


1 64  List  of  Filson  Club  Publications 

ations  or  sold  at  about  the  cost  of  publication.  The 
following  is  a  brief  catalogue  of  all  the  Club  publications 
to  date. 

1.  JOHN  FILSON,  the  first  historian  of  Kentucky.     An 
account  of  his  life  and  writings,  principally  from  original 
sources,   prepared  for  The   Filson   Club   and  read  at  its 
second  meeting  in  Louisville,  June  26,   1884,  by  Reuben 
T.  Durrett,  A.  B.,  LL.  B.,  A.  M.,  LL.  D.,  President  of 
the  Club.     Illustrated  with  a  likeness  of   Filson,   a  fac 
simile  of  one  of  his  letters,  and  a  photo-lithographic  re 
production  of  his  map  of  Kentucky  printed  at  Philadelphia 
in  1784.     4to,   132  pages.     John  P.  Morton  &  Company, 
Printers,  Louisville,  Kentucky.     1884. 

2.  THE    WILDERNESS    ROAD:     A    description    of    the 
routes  of  travel  by  which  the  pioneers  and  early  settlers 
first  came  to  Kentucky.     Prepared  for  The  Filson  Club 
by  Captain  Thomas  Speed,  Secretary  of  the  Club.     Illus 
trated  with  a  map  showing  the  routes  of  travel.     4to,  75 
pages.     John  P.  Morton  &  Company,  Printers,  Louisville, 
Kentucky.     1886. 

3.  THE  PIONEER  PRESS  OF  KENTUCKY,  from  the  print 
ing  of  the  first  paper  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  August  n, 
1787,  to  the  establishment  of  the  Daily  Press,  1830.     Pre 
pared  for  The  Filson  Club  by  William  Henry  Perrin,  mem 
ber  of  the  Club.     Illustrated  with  facsimiles  of  pages  of 
the  Kentucky  Gazette  and  Fanner's  Library,  a  view  of 
the  first  printing  house  in  Kentucky,   and  likenesses  of 
John  Bradford,  Shadrack  Penn,  and  George  D.  Prentice. 
4to,    93   pages.     John   P.    Morton  &   Company,    Printers, 
Louisville,  Kentucky.     1888. 

4.  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JUDGE  CALEB  WALLACE,  some 
time  a  Justice  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  of  the  State  of 


List  of  Filson   Club  Publications  165 

Kentucky.  By  the  Reverend  William  H.  Whitsitt,  D.  D., 
member  of  the  Club.  4to,  151  pages.  John  P.  Morton 
&  Company,  Printers,  Louisville,  Kentucky.  1888. 

5.  AN  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF    ST.   PAUL'S   CHURCH, 
Louisville,    Kentucky,    prepared  for   the   Semi- Centennial 
Celebration,    October   6,    1889.     By   Reuben   T.    Durrett, 
A.  B.,  LL.  B.,  A.  M.,  LL.  D.,  President  of  the  Club.     Il 
lustrated  with  likenesses  of  the  Reverend  William  Jackson, 
the  Reverend  Edmund  T.  Perkins,  D.  D.,  and  views  of 
the  church  as  first  built  in   1839  and  as  it  appeared  in 
1889.      4to,    90    pages.      John    P.    Morton   &    Company, 
Printers,  Louisville,  Kentucky.     1889. 

6.  THE  POLITICAL  BEGINNINGS  OF  KENTUCKY:   A  nar 
rative   of   public   events   bearing   on   the   history   of   the 
State  up  to  the  time  of  its  admission  into  the  American 
Union.     By  Colonel  John  Mason  Brown,  member  of  the 
Club.     Illustrated   with   a   likeness   of   the   author.     4to, 
263  pages.     John  P.  Morton  &  Company,  Printers,  Lou 
isville,  Kentucky.     1889. 

7.  THE    CENTENARY   OF    KENTUCKY:    Proceedings    at 
the  celebration  by  The  Filson  Club,  Wednesday,  June  i, 
1892,  of  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  admission 
of  Kentucky  as  an  independent  State  into  the   Federal 
Union.     Prepared  for  publication  by  Reuben  T.  Durrett, 
A.  B.,  LL.  B.,  A.  M.,  LL.  D.,  President  of  the  Club.     Il 
lustrated  with  likenesses  of  President  Durrett,  Major  Stan- 
ton,  Sieur   LaSalle,    and   General   George    Rogers   Clark, 
and  facsimiles  of  the  music  and  songs  of  the  Centennial 
Banquet.     4to,  200  pages.     John  P.  Morton  &  Company, 
Printers,  Louisville,  Kentucky.     1892. 

8.  THE   CENTENARY    OF   LOUISVILLE:     A    paper  read 
before  the  Southern  Historical  Association,  Saturday,  May 


1 66  List  of  Filson   Club  Publications 

i,  1880,  in  commemoration  of  the  one  hundredth  anniver 
sary  of  the  beginning  of  the  city  of  Louisville  as  an  in 
corporated  town  under  an  act  of  the  Virginia  Legislature. 
By  Reuben  T.  Durrett,  A.  B.,  LL.  B.,  A.  M.,  LL.  D., 
President  of  the  Club.  Illustrated  with  likenesses  of  Col 
onel  Durrett,  Sieur  LaSalle,  and  General  George  Rogers 
Clark.  4to,  200  pages.  John  P.  Morton  &  Company, 
Printers,  Louisville,  Kentucky.  1893. 

9.  THE    POLITICAL   CLUB,   Danville,    Kentucky,    1786- 
1790.     Being  an  account  of  an  early  Kentucky  debating 
society,  from  the  original  papers  recently  found.     By  Cap 
tain  Thomas  Speed,  Secretary  of  the  Club.     4to,  xii-i67 
pages.     John  P.  Morton  &  Company,  Printers,  Louisville, 
Kentucky.     1894. 

10.  THE   LIFE   AND  WRITINGS   OF   RAFINESQUE.     Pre 
pared  for  The  Filson  Club  and  read  at  its  meeting  Monday, 
April  2,  1894.     By  Richard  Ellsworth  Call,  M.  A.,  M.  Sc., 
M.  D.,  member  of  the  Club.     Illustrated  with  likenesses 
of  Rafinesque  and  facsimiles  of  pages  of  his  Fishes  of  the 
Ohio  and  Botany  of  Louisville.     4to,  xii-227  pages.    John 
P.   Morton  &   Company,    Printers,   Louisville,    Kentucky, 

1895- 

11.  TRANSYLVANIA    UNIVERSITY.     Its   origin,  rise,  de 
cline,  and  fall.     Prepared  for  The  Filson  Club  by  Robert 
Peter,  M.  D.,  and  his  daughter,  Miss  Johanna  Peter,  mem 
bers  of  the  Club.     Illustrated  with  a  likeness  of  Doctor 
Peter.     4to,    202    pages.     John   P.    Morton   &   Company, 
Printers,  Louisville,   Kentucky.     1896. 

12.  BRYANT'S  STATION  and  the  Memorial  Proceedings 
held  on  its  site  under  the  auspices  of  the  Lexington  Chap 
ter  D.  A.  R.,  August  1 8,  1896,  in  honor  of  its  heroic  moth 
ers  and  daughters.     Prepared  for  publication  by  Reuben 


List  of  Filson  Club  Publications  167 

T.  Durrett,  A.  B.,  LL.  B.,  A.  M.,  LL.  D.,  President  of 
the  Club.  Illustrated  with  likenesses  of  officers  of  the 
Lexington  Chapter  D.  A.  R.,  President  Durrett  of  The 
Filson  Club,  Major  Stanton,  Professor  Ranck,  Colonel 
Young,  and  Doctor  Todd,  members  of  the  Club,  and  full- 
page  views  of  Bryant's  Station  and  its  spring,  and  of  the 
battlefield  of  the  Blue  Licks.  4to,  xii-227  pages.  John 
P.  Morton  &  Company,  Printers,  Louisville,  Kentucky. 
1897. 

13.  THE    FIRST    EXPLORATIONS    OF    KENTUCKY.     The 
Journals  of  Doctor  Thomas  Walker,  1750,  and  of  Colonel 
Christopher  Gist,    1751.     Edited  by  Colonel  J.   Stoddard 
Johnston,  Vice-President  of  the  Club.     Illustrated  with  a 
map  of  Kentucky  showing  the  routes  of  Walker  and  Gist 
throughout   the   State,   with   a   view  of   Castle   Hill,    the 
residence   of   Doctor  Walker,    and   a  likeness  of   Colonel 
Johnston.     4to,  256  pages.     John  P.  Morton  &  Company, 
Printers,  Louisville,  Kentucky.     1898. 

14.  THE  CLAY  FAMILY.      Part   First — The   Mother  of 
Henry  Clay,  by  Zachary  F.  Smith,  member  of  the  Club. 
Part  Second — The  Genealogy  of  the  Clays,  by  Mrs.  Mary 
Rogers   Clay,   member  of   the   Club.     Illustrated  with   a 
full-page  halftone  likeness  of  Henry  Clay,  of  each  of  the 
authors,  and  a  full-page  picture  of  the  Clay  coat-of-arms, 
also  four  full-page  grouped  illustrations,  each  containing 
four  likenesses  of  members  of  the  Clay  family.     4to,  vi- 
276  pages.     John  P.  Morton  &  Company,  Printers,  Lou 
isville,  Kentucky.     1899. 

15.  THE    BATTLE    OF   TIPPECANOE.     Part    First — The 
Battle  and  Battle-ground;  Part  Second — Comment  of  the 
Press;  Part  Third — Roll  of  the  Army  commanded  by  Gen 
eral  Harrison.     By  Captain  Alfred  Pirtle,  member  of  the 


1 68  List  of  Filson   Club  Publications 

Club.  Illustrated  with  a  likeness  of  the  author  and  like 
nesses  of  William  Henry  Harrison  and  Colonel  Joseph 
Hamilton  Daveiss  and  Elkswatawa,  "The  Prophet," 
together  with  three  full-page  views  and  a  plot  of  the 
battle-ground.  4to,  xix-i58  pages.  John  P.  Morton  & 
Company,  Printers,  Louisville,  Kentucky.  1900. 

1 6.  BOONESBOROUGH,   a    pioneer    town    of    Kentucky. 
Its   origin,    progress,    decline,    and    final    extinction.     By 
George  W.  Ranck,  historian  of  Lexington,  Kentucky,  etc., 
and  member  of  the  Club.     Illustrated  with  copious  half 
tone  views  of  its  site  and  its  fort,  with  likenesses  of  the 
author  and  of  Daniel  Boone,   and  a  picture  of  Boone's 
principal  relics.     4 to,  xii-286  pages.     John  P.  Morton  & 
Company,  Printers,  Louisville,  Kentucky.     1901. 

17.  THE  OLD  MASTERS  OF  THE  BLUEGRASS.     By  Gen 
eral  Samuel  W.  Price,  member  of  the  Club.     Consisting 
of    biographic    sketches    of    the    distinguished    Kentucky 
artists  Matthew  H.  Jouett,  Joseph  H.  Bush,  John  Grimes, 
Oliver  Frazer,  Louis  Morgan,  Joel  T.  Hart,  and  Samuel 
W.    Price,    with    halftone    likenesses   of    the    artists   and 
specimens   of   their  work.     4to,  xiii-i8i    pages.     John  P. 
Morton  &  Company,  Printers,  Louisville,  Kentucky.    1902. 

18.  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  THAMES.     By  Colonel   Ben 
nett  H.   Young,  member  of  the  Club.     Presenting  a  re 
view  of  the  causes  which  led  to  the  battle,  the  prepara 
tions  made  for  it,  the  scene  of  the  conflict,  and  the  vic 
tory.     Illustrated  with  a  steel  engraving  of  the  author, 
halftone  likenesses  of  the  principal  actors  and  scenes  and 
relics  from  the  battlefield.     To  which  is  added  an  appen 
dix  containing  a  list  of  the  officers  and  privates  engaged. 
4to,   288  pages.     John  P.   Morton  &  Company,   Printers, 
Louisville,  Kentucky.     1903. 


List  of  Filson  Club  Publications  169 

19.  THE    BATTLE   OF  NEW  ORLEANS.     By  Zachary  F. 
Smith,  member  of  the  Club.     Presenting  a  full  account  of 
the  forces  engaged,  the  preparations  made,  the  prelimi 
nary  conflicts  which  led  up  to  the  final  battle  and  the 
victory  to  the  Americans  on  the  8th  of  January,    1815. 
Illustrated  with  full-page  likenesses  of  the  author,  of  Gen 
erals  Jackson  and  Adair,  of  Governors  Shelby  and  Slaugh 
ter,  and  maps  of  the  country  and  scenes  from  the  bat 
tlefield,  to  which  is  added  a  list  of  Kentuckians  in  the 
battle.     4to,    224   pages.     John   P.    Morton   &   Company, 
Printers,  Louisville,   Kentucky.     1904. 

20.  THE   HISTORY  OF  THE  MEDICAL   DEPARTMENT   OF 
TRANSYLVANIA    UNIVERSITY.     By    Doctor    Robert    Peter, 
deceased.     Prepared  for  publication  by  his  daughter,  Miss 
Johanna   Peter,    member   of   the   Club.     Illustrated  with 
full-page  likenesses  of  the  author  and  principal  professors, 
and  a  view  of  the  old  medical  hall  and  its  janitor.     410, 
205  pages.     John  P.  Morton  &  Company,  Printers,  Louis 
ville,  Kentucky.     1905. 

21.  LOPEZ'S  EXPEDITIONS  TO  CUBA.     By  A.  C.  Quis- 
enberry,  member  of  the  Club.     Presenting  a  detailed  ac 
count  of  the  Cardenas  and  the  Bahia  Honda  expeditions, 
with  the  names  of  the  officers  and  men,  as  far  as  ascer- 
tainable,    who   were   engaged   in   them.     Illustrated  with 
full-page  likenesses  of  A.  C.  Quisenberry  the  author,  Gen 
eral  Narciso  Lopez  commander-in-chief,  Colonel  John  T. 
Pickett,    Colonel   Theodore   O'Hara,    Colonel   Thomas   T. 
Hawkins,  Colonel  William  Logan  Crittenden,  Captain  Rob 
ert  H.  Breckenridge,  Lieutenant  John  Carl  Johnston,  and 
landscape  views  of  Cuba,  Rose  Hill,  Moro  Castle,  and  a 
common  human  bone-heap  of  a  Cuban  cemetery.     In  the 
appendix,  besides  other  valuable  matter,  will  be  found  a 


1 7°  List  of  Filson  Chib  Publications 

full  list  of  The  Filson  Club  publications  and  of  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Club.  4 to,  172  pages.  John  P.  Morton  & 
Company,  Printers,  Louisville,  Kentucky.  1906. 

22.  THE   QUEST  FOR  A   LOST   RACE.      By  Thomas   E. 
Pickett,  M.  D.,  member  of  the  Club.     Presenting  the  the 
ory  of  Paul   B.   DuChaillu,   an  eminent   ethnologist  and 
explorer,  that  the  English-speaking  people  are  descended 
from  the  Scandinavians  rather  than  the  Teutons,   from 
the  Normans  instead  of  the  Germans.     Examples  of  simi 
lar  customs   and  peculiarities  between  the  Scandinavians 
and  English  are  given,  and  the  work  illustrated  with  half 
tone  likenesses  of  the  author,  of  William  the  Conqueror, 
of  DuChaillu,  and  of  "Our  Beautiful  Scandinavian,"  with 
maps  of  Scandinavia  and    Northumbria,   and   with  like 
nesses  of  a  number  of  distinguished   Kentuckians  whose 
names,    aspects,    and    habits   indicate    descent    from    the 
Scandinavians  or  Norman-French.    4 to,  229  pages.    John 
P.   Morton  &    Company,  Printers,   Louisville,    Kentucky. 
1907. 

23.  TRADITIONS  OF  THE  EARLIEST  VISITS  OF  FOREIGNERS 
TO  NORTH  AMERICA,   the  first  formed  and  first  inhabited 
of  the   continents.     By   Reuben  T.   Durrett,   A.   B.,  LL. 
B.,  A.  M.,   LL.  D.,   President  of  the  Club.     An  attempt 
to    show   that   history,    tradition,    and   science   favor   the 
probability   that   the    East   was   originally   peopled   from 
the    West,    that    the    first    Oriental    visitors    found    this 
country  already  with  occupants,   and  that  America  was 
really  the  first  formed  and   first   inhabited  of  the  conti 
nents.      The    principal    pre-Columbian     discoveries     are 
cited,    and    ample    space    given    to    the    tradition    that 
Prince   Madoc   planted    a   Welsh    colony   in   America    in 
the    Twelfth   century    which   at   one   time    occupied   the 


List  of  Filson   Club  Publications  171 

country  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio.  Copiously  illustrated 
with  halftone  views  of  mountains,  valleys,  castles,  churches, 
abbeys,  etc.,  in  Wales,  the  native  country  of  the  colony, 
a  view  of  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio  at  the  time  the  colony 
may  be  supposed  to  have  dwelt  there,  and  a  likeness  of 
the  author.  4to,  200  pages.  John  P.  Morton  &  Com 
pany,  Printers,  Louisville,  Kentucky.  1908. 


INDEX 

PAGE 

Absence  of    a  tribe  of  Welsh   Indians — no   evidence  that  they 

never  existed  68 

After  Columbus  made  known  America,  there  were  numerous 

claimants  to  its  discovery  70 

Agassiz  pronounced  North  America  the  oldest  of  the  continents  .  .  72 

America — oldest  of  the  continents  70 

America  never  found  uninhabited  by  visitors  from  the  Eastern 

continent  69 

America  first  inhabited  of  the  continents 75 

Americans  could  go  to  Ireland  as  easy  as  the  Irish  could  come 

to  America  16 

Atlantis  the  vanished  island  of  Plato  2 

Atlantis  tradition  originated  in  Egypt  twelve  thousand  years 

ago  4 

Atlantis  tradition  has  support  from  geology 4 

Atlantis  submerged  twelve  thousand  years  ago 3 

Atlantis  described  in  the  "Timaeus"  and  "Critias"  of  Plato 3 

Autochthons  of  America  115 

Bancroft  on  the  Madoc  tradition  113 

Beatty,  Charles,  tells  what  he  learned  of  the  Welsh  Indians  while 

a  missionary 38 

Binon's  account  of  the  Welsh  Indians 133 

Bones  and  implements  of    man  found  in  Europe  indicating  the 

Quaternary  age    ,  .  .  .  .  78 

Bones  of  man  in  caves  and  gravels  best  proof  of  his  former  exist 
ence   78 

Bones  and  implements  of  Tertiary  man  found  in  America  79 


1 74  Index 

PAGE 

Bowles,  a  Cherokee  chief,  on  the  Welsh  Indians 130 

Bourbois  River,  Missouri,  yielded  the  skeleton  of  a  mastodon  of 

the  Tertiary  age 80 

Bryant  &  Gay's  Popular  History  on  the  Welsh  Indians 45 

Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  on  the  Island  of  Atlantis    113 

Burial  of  a  widow's  two  sons   85 

Burder,  George,  on  the  Welsh  tradition 42 

Catlin  lived  for  years  among  the    Mandans  and  believed  them 

to  be  the  Welsh  Indians    44 

Catlin,  George,  on  the  Welsh  Indians  44 

Calaveras  County,  California,  yielded  a  human  skull  in  auriferous 

gravel  of  the  Tertiary  age 80 

Caractacus — his  speech  before  Emperor  Claudius 120 

Caernarvon  Castle  x 

Chinese  claim  of  a  visit  to  America  in  499 12 

Civil  war  between  the  sons  of  Prince  Gwynedd 23 

Civilization  and  whisky  destroyed  many  Indians 67 

Clark,  George  Rogers,  tells  about  curious  house  near  Kaskaskia  .  .  49 
Croghan,  Colonel  George, — his  letter  to  Governor  Dinwiddie  about 

the  Welsh  Indians     117 

Delaware  River  gravels  yield  argillite  implements  of   the  Terti 
ary  age    79 

Different   authors  have  varied  opinions  about  Plato's  Atlantis  .  .  107 

Diodorus  Siculus'  glowing  account  of  his  island 7 

Doeg  Indians  in  Maryland  in  1666    . 32 

Doeg  Indians  secure  Jones'  release  from  the  Tuscaroras 31 

Drake's  Aboriginal  Races  of  America   66 

Erickson's  better  claim  to  discovery  of  America  than  Herjulson  .  .  14 


Index  175 

PAGE 

Falls  of  Ohio  in  state  of  nature xi 

Fall  River  skeleton  in  Norse  armor  65 

Filson,  John,  on  Madoc  tradition  46 

Filson  tells  all  about  the  Madoc  tradition  and  puts  his  hearers 

asleep  51 

Filson's  kind  notices  of  Indians  52 

Filson,  John,  with  eminent  Kentucky  pioneers 47 

Filson,  John,  in  meeting  of  Kentucky  pioneers  to  learn  about 

Madoc  tradition  48 

Frazer,  Lady,  her  opinion  of  the  Columbian  discovery 141 

Fusang,  the  name  given  America  by  the  Chinese 12 

Geologists  measure  age   of  continents  not  in  years  but   in  eras, 

ages,  periods,  etc     71 

Giraldus,  the  historian,  on  the  Welsh   122 

Griffin  relates  early  traditions  of  Falls  of  the  Ohio iv 

Griffiths    and    five    Shawnees    reach   the  Welsh   Indians   up  the 

Missouri 51 

Griffiths  and  companions  are  condemned  to  death  and  his  speak 
ing  Welsh  saved  them    60 

Gutton  Owen's  copy  of  the  Madoc  tradition 22 

Gwynedd's  oldest  son  could  not  inherit  the  crown  because  of  his 

broken  nose    23 

Harrison  tells  of  a  grayevard  opposite  the  Falls 50 

Harlech  Castle   xi 

Levi  Hicks  also  tells  of  Indians  who  talked  Welsh    39 

Hinde  mentions  six  Welsh  skeletons  found  at  the  Falls  of   the 

Ohio 62 

Hinde  states  that  the  Welsh  colony  was  once  at  the  Falls 62 

Hinde,  Thomas  S.,  on  the  Madoc  tradition 61 


1 76  Index 

PAGE 

Illustrations  of  twenty-third  publication viii 

Importance  of  Parson  Jones'  statement   33 

Indians'  superstition  about  the  cholera    96 

Irish  claim  of  discovery  extended  from  Virginia  to  Florida 16 

Irish  claim  of  the  discovery  of  America  15 

Island  of  Atlantis  as  told  by  Windsor 104 


Jefferson's   belief   that    immigrants  went   from  America   to  Asia 

instead  of  from  Asia  to  America    75 

Jones,  etc.,  saved  by  his  use  of  Welsh  words    31 

Jones  and  companions  taken  prisoners  by  the  Indians 31 

Jones'  starving  condition  at  Port  Royal 30 

Jones,  Reverend  Morgan, — his  account  of  the  Madoc  tradition .    .  30 

Jones'  errors  as  to  geography 31 

Journey  of    Israelites  through  Red  Sea  and  Wilderness  distorted 

in  Indian  tradition    40 

List  of  members  of  The  Filson  Club,  1908     151-161 

Lord  Littleton's  opinion  of  the  Madoc  tradition    144 

Madoc  tradition  as  given  in  Hakluit     20 

Madoc  tradition  widely  known  in  America    17 

Madoc  tradition  from  Filson's  History   52 

Madoc  tradition  in  Welsh  history    22 

Madoc  tradition  in  Kentucky     46 

Madoc  tradition  in  America    28 

Madoc  tradition  as  known  in  Europe   19 

Madoc  tradition  in  Powell's  edition  of  Caradoc's  Wales 22 

Mammoth  Cave  mummy  of  unknown  age   81 

Mammoth  Cave  mummy   82 


Index  177 

PAGE 

Man's  love  for  the  ancient    86 

Man  might  have  been  placed  first  in  America  as  well  as  in  Asia  ....  84 

Mandan  derived  from  Madawgwys 101 

Mandans  destroyed  by  smallpox  in  1838   90 

Mclntosh  hears  Welshman  talk  with  Indians    63 

Moore  tells  of  battle  of  Sand  Island,  in  which  the  White  Indians 

perished     50 

Morgan  Jones'  opinion  of  the  Welsh  Indians    132 

Montezuma's  speech  to  his  people  when  dethroned  by  Cortez  ...  135 

Mound  Builders  equal  to  the  Atlantians 9 

Mound  Builders  antedated  the  Red  Indians    77 

Mound  Builders,  The    83 

Mounds  of  Louisville  .  51 


Nebulous  theory  of  the  origin  of  our  solar  system 72 

Norse  claim  of  the  discovery  of  America   13 

No  certain  way  of  measuring  the  age  of  continents  in  years 70 

Ocean  soundings  indicate  a  sunken  island  on  its  bed   5 

Origin  of  Prince  of  Wales vii 

Owen's  account  of  the  Welsh  Indians    137-139 

Philadelphians  propose  to  go  in  search  of  the  Madoc  colony 34 

Phoenician  tradition  as  to  Atlantis   7 

Pottery  and  ornaments  peculiar  to  Mandans    102 

Prehistoric  river  in  England  4 

Red  Indians  first  people  found  here  by  Europeans 77 

Red  Indians  could  give  no  rational  account  of  their  origin 77 

Relics  of  Welsh  Indians  along  the  Missouri  River 99 


178  Index 

PAGE 

Roberts,  Lieutenant  Joseph,  gives    account   of   a  Welsh    Indian 

he  met  in  Washington    , 54 

Robertson,  the  historian,  on  the  Madoc  tradition 148 

Rough  catalogue  of  Filson  Club  publications 163-171 


Sanders  tells  of  a  White  Indian  killed  by  a  panther 50 

Scythians  could  more  easily  have  reached  America  than  Chinese  .  .  12 

Selections  from  the  Gentleman's  Magazine 137 

Selections  from  the  "Inquiry"  and  "Further  Observations"  by 

Reverend  John  Williams 126 

Shaler's  estimate  of  the  time  America  had  existed  before  life 

began  71 

Skeletons  in  Welsh  armor  found  at  the  Falls  suggest  doubt  64 

Skinner,  Doctor,  consoled  Filson  by  suggesting  his  hearers  were 

spellbound  instead  of  being  asleep  52 

Sutton,  Benjamin,  tells  what  he  learned  while  among  the  Welsh 

Indians  38 

Smallpox  among  the  Indians  very  fatal  67 

Smallpox — cause  of  its  virulence  and  fatality  among  Indians  ....  92 
Smith,  Captain  John,  first  published  the  Madoc  tradition  in 

America  29 

Stuart,  Captain  Isaac,  tells  what  he  learned  about  the  Welsh 

Indians  while   living  with  them  as  a  prisoner  and  when  at 

liberty  35 

St.  Asaph  x 

Sutton  further  tells  of  Jewish  customs  among  the  Indians 40 


Toulmin  gives  to  the  "Palladium"  Griffiths'  account  of  the  Welsh 

Indians    57 

Tradition  of  Madoc 's  colony  in  America  as  told  by  Bryant  &  Gay  .  .    108 


TY    )) 
\ 


Index  1 79 


PAGE 

Unbelievers  in  the  Madoc  tradition    143 

"Universal  History"  on  the  Madoc  tradition  .  .  124 


Welsh  colony  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio 18 

Welsh  Indians  spoke  Welsh  as  well  as  Roberts,  the  Welshman ....  55 

Welsh  Indians  builders  of  mounds  in  Mississippi  Valley 98 

Welsh  a  maritime  people    126 

Welsh  a  cultured  people 129 

Welsh  colony  ancestors  of  Mandans  97 

Where  in  America  Madoc  landed  his  colony 98 

Whole  tribes  of  Indians  destroyed  65 

Williams,  Reverend  John, — his  valuable  work  on  the  subject.  .  .  42 


